Dear Kids,
I am posting all the pictures from the beginning of the evening for Eva's mormon prom, if you are interested in looking at them.
Love Daddy
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Easter and Kaitlin's baptism
April 24, 2011
Dear Rosalynde, Gabrielle, Naomi, Brigham, Rachel, Benjamin, Abraham and Christian!
I hope that Rosalynde and her family survived the fierce storms that rocked St. Louis this weekend. (I called her, and everything is okay. No problem in her neighborhood or ward, but they have had lots or rain, with a threat of flooding.
I hope your Easter week has been wonderful and worshipful. Mama has made Easter wonderful for us. She made a small crèche display on the buffet with a crown of thorns and palm leaves. On the kitchen table, she set a place for Elijah, together with paintings from Holy Week. See the attached pictures. Today she made a seder dinner: shank of paschal lamb, wine (cranberry juice), bitter herbs (horseradish), sweet herbs (broccoli), and oranges and yoghurt representing another dish. She also made delicious hot cross buns. This afternoon for Easter, I listened to "Messiah".
Today at Church we had a wonderful Sacrament meeting. Paul Morrison gave a wonderful four minute talk on Holy Week, well crafted, thoughtful and meaningful. Then the primary children sang, led by Lindsay Henriod. It was a difficult piece for primary children, with two little girls with solo parts, including her daughter. They sang beautifully. I told Lindsay her daughter is on the way to the Met. Lindsay, herself, sings beautifully. Then the Ward Choir sang a wonderful joyful song – Alleluja – with bells and trumpet accompaniment. It was also wonderful. The trumpeters were two priests from La Crescenta Ward and Verdugo Hills ward. They played the trumpet very well – I was impressed. Then Davis Hansen gave his homecoming talk. He arrived from Korea on Wednesday. He is a fine young man.
This afternoon, mama decided to replace the talk she had written for Kaitlin’s baptism and write a new one, which she has been doing. Kaitlin attended church with us this morning. We attended her baptism this evening. Mama arranged the baptismal dress for her. Mama also brought refreshments for the reception. Kaitlin did not have an easy time at home. She told her parents yesterday, although she had tried to broach the subject earlier. They took it as a personal insult, and told her that having the baptism on Easter was just sticking a finger in their eyes. She called Mama and they cried together on the telephone. But she was resolute and came. The Harricks picked her up for the babptism and took her home. The baptismal service was wonderful. Christian chose the hymns, and was given credit in the program. After the opening hymn, I gave the prayer. The institute director at PCC gave a nice talk on baptism. Then Kaitlin and Davis Hansen sang “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”. The baptism followed, with Br. Harrick baptizing Kaitlin. Then Mama gave a wonderful illustrated talk on the Holy Ghost, and as part of it gave a “comforter” that she had quilted to Kaitlin as a baptismal gift. The room was full. A number of her friends from institute came. Christian, the Vargas young man came (he sang with you in LACC and I have forgotten his first name.) he is attending PCC. He wants to get a degree in choral conducting or composition. We enjoyed some light refreshments afterword with the cookies and cakes that a number of people brought. Mama made lemonade with lemons directly from our tree. I have attached a couple of pictures.
Friday evening, Eva went to the Mormon Prom with Brian Grigg. I came home by 6:00 PM and accompanied them to the Church where everyone met. Eva looked beautiful. She pinned a boutonier on Brian, and he presented her with a wrist corsage. They went to the Natural History Museum. Eva enjoyed the evening and had fun. They danced for awhile, and talked with others, and ate food. We had left the car at the Church for her to drive home in. since Bryan does not drive, Eva drove him home. I asked Lynda Grigg today if Bryan had a good time. She said yes he did have fun and he thought eva also had fun. Joe and Lynda had been telling Bryan he had the responsibility to make sure that Eva had a good time and to be a gentleman. So Lynda was very happy with how he evening went. See more pictures on our blog site.
Afte we dropped Eva off at the Church and watched them all climb aboard two big busses, Mama and I went to the Hansens’ for a reception for Davis, who just returned two days before. We enjoyed it and enjoyed talking to him and to other ward members there. Mama and I did not stay too long. When we arrived home, I had a little daylight left. So I took my field striping machine and went to FIS to stripe the field for the soccer game the next day. It got dark before I finished, but with the help of a couple of flashlights, I could see the faint lines from the week before well-enough to finish the striping. Then I decided to wash Mama’s car. I drove to the church and returned with her car. I washed the outside, and the windows on the inside before I took it back to the church.
Saturday morning, I cleaned out the inside of Mama’s car. I still need to wash the mats, but I did not get to that yet. I also washed the mat in the backseat of my truck. I went to my office for awhile and did some legal work. In the meantime, I made some calls to make sure La Canada Jr. Baseball had not scheduled use of the field outside the times set forth on the website. Unfortunately, LCJBSA had scheduled something. But I was able to contact Jim Harvey from the High School and find out that the high school soccer field was available. So with email, facebook and twitter, I let everyone know of the change of venue. We had about 26 come out to play. I enjoyed it.
The highlight of the evening was dinner at Randy Huff’s house in Altadena. He has taken over from Joe Bentley as the Chair of the Council on Mormon Studies. It was a farewell dinner for Richard and Claudia Bushman. I need to thank Randy Huff for sitting us at a table with Armand and Ruth Mauss and Richard Bushman. What a treat. They were very interested in all the teaching that Mama does. I told him that Benjamin is off to Columbia for his Ph.D. in physics. He will also be in New York during the academic year teaching a class at Columbia and working on two of his books. The major project is a cultural history of the gold plates. His other book is a history of farming in New England. But when I told him about Benjamin and his work in crystals and solid state physics, he wanted to know if Benjamin knew about metallic crystalline stricter. He had a reason for asking. For the past quite a few years, he has been conducting a summer seminar at BYU. He has used this to mentor students but to also help some of his own research efforts – including Rough Stone Rolling. This summer, the focus is on the gold plates. He is interested in the metallic crystalline structure of metals and how thin plates made of gold or gold alloy could have the properties to hold inscribed characters. He has a young woman engineering student, who is only a sophomore, as part of the seminar, but he would like someone to mentor her, who has greater experience and knowledge. So Benjamin, if this is something you might be interested in (and I encourage it, along with everything else you do), I will but you in touch with Prof. Bushman. In any event, he would be happy to be in contact with you in New York. He will be part of Columbia housing, so there is a possibility that you might be in the same ward. He also expects to be doing a lot of temple work at the Manhattan Temple during this time. I have said this before, but I will reiterate it. Armand Mauss, in particularly, and Richard and Claudia Bushman are Church and moral heroes. They have been linchpins (along with a few others – such as Leonard Arrington, Hugh Nibley, and other I could name, including some closely related to family members) in supporting the church in academic and the elite journalistic enterprises. They are fully devoted to the gospel, with strict fidelity. They have helped many young scholars along the way, including doing all they can to nourish testimonies and show how one can be both a scholar of integrity in their fields as applied to the church and faithful disciples of Christ. I hope at the appropriate time, BYU will have a seminar/conference in honor of Armand Mauss and publish a collection of essays in his honor. I also hope at the appropriate time, the Ensign will publish an article about him and his work and his contribution to the Kingdom of God.
Otherwise, I just worked this week. I missed Mama’s Wednesday evening class, because my soccer game started at 7:00 PM. I enjoyed playing, despite the knocks and bloody nose (but I gave as good as I received – the blood nose occurred as I took a wicked shot on goal, and a defender crashed into me trying to defend, and unfortunately, he did block the shot), and despite the fact that we lost 6-3. We started a player down and played for some time with only 10 players. Then at the end, one of our players got a second yellow card (undeserved) and so we were reduced to 10 players at the end. With about 10 minutes to go, the referee finally saw the blood on my hands (all dried by that time), but under the rules, the player must go off the field and wash the blood off.
For all pictures, go to the blog spot: http://christie-russ.blogspot.com/.
That’s all for now.
Love Daddy
Dear Rosalynde, Gabrielle, Naomi, Brigham, Rachel, Benjamin, Abraham and Christian!
I hope that Rosalynde and her family survived the fierce storms that rocked St. Louis this weekend. (I called her, and everything is okay. No problem in her neighborhood or ward, but they have had lots or rain, with a threat of flooding.
I hope your Easter week has been wonderful and worshipful. Mama has made Easter wonderful for us. She made a small crèche display on the buffet with a crown of thorns and palm leaves. On the kitchen table, she set a place for Elijah, together with paintings from Holy Week. See the attached pictures. Today she made a seder dinner: shank of paschal lamb, wine (cranberry juice), bitter herbs (horseradish), sweet herbs (broccoli), and oranges and yoghurt representing another dish. She also made delicious hot cross buns. This afternoon for Easter, I listened to "Messiah".
Today at Church we had a wonderful Sacrament meeting. Paul Morrison gave a wonderful four minute talk on Holy Week, well crafted, thoughtful and meaningful. Then the primary children sang, led by Lindsay Henriod. It was a difficult piece for primary children, with two little girls with solo parts, including her daughter. They sang beautifully. I told Lindsay her daughter is on the way to the Met. Lindsay, herself, sings beautifully. Then the Ward Choir sang a wonderful joyful song – Alleluja – with bells and trumpet accompaniment. It was also wonderful. The trumpeters were two priests from La Crescenta Ward and Verdugo Hills ward. They played the trumpet very well – I was impressed. Then Davis Hansen gave his homecoming talk. He arrived from Korea on Wednesday. He is a fine young man.
This afternoon, mama decided to replace the talk she had written for Kaitlin’s baptism and write a new one, which she has been doing. Kaitlin attended church with us this morning. We attended her baptism this evening. Mama arranged the baptismal dress for her. Mama also brought refreshments for the reception. Kaitlin did not have an easy time at home. She told her parents yesterday, although she had tried to broach the subject earlier. They took it as a personal insult, and told her that having the baptism on Easter was just sticking a finger in their eyes. She called Mama and they cried together on the telephone. But she was resolute and came. The Harricks picked her up for the babptism and took her home. The baptismal service was wonderful. Christian chose the hymns, and was given credit in the program. After the opening hymn, I gave the prayer. The institute director at PCC gave a nice talk on baptism. Then Kaitlin and Davis Hansen sang “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”. The baptism followed, with Br. Harrick baptizing Kaitlin. Then Mama gave a wonderful illustrated talk on the Holy Ghost, and as part of it gave a “comforter” that she had quilted to Kaitlin as a baptismal gift. The room was full. A number of her friends from institute came. Christian, the Vargas young man came (he sang with you in LACC and I have forgotten his first name.) he is attending PCC. He wants to get a degree in choral conducting or composition. We enjoyed some light refreshments afterword with the cookies and cakes that a number of people brought. Mama made lemonade with lemons directly from our tree. I have attached a couple of pictures.
Friday evening, Eva went to the Mormon Prom with Brian Grigg. I came home by 6:00 PM and accompanied them to the Church where everyone met. Eva looked beautiful. She pinned a boutonier on Brian, and he presented her with a wrist corsage. They went to the Natural History Museum. Eva enjoyed the evening and had fun. They danced for awhile, and talked with others, and ate food. We had left the car at the Church for her to drive home in. since Bryan does not drive, Eva drove him home. I asked Lynda Grigg today if Bryan had a good time. She said yes he did have fun and he thought eva also had fun. Joe and Lynda had been telling Bryan he had the responsibility to make sure that Eva had a good time and to be a gentleman. So Lynda was very happy with how he evening went. See more pictures on our blog site.
Afte we dropped Eva off at the Church and watched them all climb aboard two big busses, Mama and I went to the Hansens’ for a reception for Davis, who just returned two days before. We enjoyed it and enjoyed talking to him and to other ward members there. Mama and I did not stay too long. When we arrived home, I had a little daylight left. So I took my field striping machine and went to FIS to stripe the field for the soccer game the next day. It got dark before I finished, but with the help of a couple of flashlights, I could see the faint lines from the week before well-enough to finish the striping. Then I decided to wash Mama’s car. I drove to the church and returned with her car. I washed the outside, and the windows on the inside before I took it back to the church.
Saturday morning, I cleaned out the inside of Mama’s car. I still need to wash the mats, but I did not get to that yet. I also washed the mat in the backseat of my truck. I went to my office for awhile and did some legal work. In the meantime, I made some calls to make sure La Canada Jr. Baseball had not scheduled use of the field outside the times set forth on the website. Unfortunately, LCJBSA had scheduled something. But I was able to contact Jim Harvey from the High School and find out that the high school soccer field was available. So with email, facebook and twitter, I let everyone know of the change of venue. We had about 26 come out to play. I enjoyed it.
The highlight of the evening was dinner at Randy Huff’s house in Altadena. He has taken over from Joe Bentley as the Chair of the Council on Mormon Studies. It was a farewell dinner for Richard and Claudia Bushman. I need to thank Randy Huff for sitting us at a table with Armand and Ruth Mauss and Richard Bushman. What a treat. They were very interested in all the teaching that Mama does. I told him that Benjamin is off to Columbia for his Ph.D. in physics. He will also be in New York during the academic year teaching a class at Columbia and working on two of his books. The major project is a cultural history of the gold plates. His other book is a history of farming in New England. But when I told him about Benjamin and his work in crystals and solid state physics, he wanted to know if Benjamin knew about metallic crystalline stricter. He had a reason for asking. For the past quite a few years, he has been conducting a summer seminar at BYU. He has used this to mentor students but to also help some of his own research efforts – including Rough Stone Rolling. This summer, the focus is on the gold plates. He is interested in the metallic crystalline structure of metals and how thin plates made of gold or gold alloy could have the properties to hold inscribed characters. He has a young woman engineering student, who is only a sophomore, as part of the seminar, but he would like someone to mentor her, who has greater experience and knowledge. So Benjamin, if this is something you might be interested in (and I encourage it, along with everything else you do), I will but you in touch with Prof. Bushman. In any event, he would be happy to be in contact with you in New York. He will be part of Columbia housing, so there is a possibility that you might be in the same ward. He also expects to be doing a lot of temple work at the Manhattan Temple during this time. I have said this before, but I will reiterate it. Armand Mauss, in particularly, and Richard and Claudia Bushman are Church and moral heroes. They have been linchpins (along with a few others – such as Leonard Arrington, Hugh Nibley, and other I could name, including some closely related to family members) in supporting the church in academic and the elite journalistic enterprises. They are fully devoted to the gospel, with strict fidelity. They have helped many young scholars along the way, including doing all they can to nourish testimonies and show how one can be both a scholar of integrity in their fields as applied to the church and faithful disciples of Christ. I hope at the appropriate time, BYU will have a seminar/conference in honor of Armand Mauss and publish a collection of essays in his honor. I also hope at the appropriate time, the Ensign will publish an article about him and his work and his contribution to the Kingdom of God.
Otherwise, I just worked this week. I missed Mama’s Wednesday evening class, because my soccer game started at 7:00 PM. I enjoyed playing, despite the knocks and bloody nose (but I gave as good as I received – the blood nose occurred as I took a wicked shot on goal, and a defender crashed into me trying to defend, and unfortunately, he did block the shot), and despite the fact that we lost 6-3. We started a player down and played for some time with only 10 players. Then at the end, one of our players got a second yellow card (undeserved) and so we were reduced to 10 players at the end. With about 10 minutes to go, the referee finally saw the blood on my hands (all dried by that time), but under the rules, the player must go off the field and wash the blood off.
For all pictures, go to the blog spot: http://christie-russ.blogspot.com/.
That’s all for now.
Love Daddy
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Eva is Gold
February 6, 2011
Dear Rosalynde, Gabrielle, Naomi, Brigham, Rachel, Benjamin, Abraham and Christian!
We have had an eventful week! Eva’s gold project has been very successful. Eva has been very responsible. With Mama’s support and encouragement, Eva has really carried it of very well. She is composed and articulate as she introduced the concert and explained her project. She organized a very fine benefit concert. She recruited the talent and the kids really came through in fine form for the concert. Eva and Mama conceived the decorations and the arrangement of the cultural hall at the church and it was just right. We set it up on Thursday evening. My truck came in handy hauling everything over there. We put up chairs about half-way back in the cultural hall. We tried out the sound system, I put up a screen and set up the projector and computer. I started the three different video discs to make sure it all worked. The next evening for the concert, quite a few people showed up early. The Lottmans saw the article in the paper and decided to come out to the concert. (Gabrielle, Brian is in Austin – but I think you know that.) Anthony Portentino came. People kept on coming in. so we set up more chairs. We were very gratified. The program went relatively smoothly, with only the endearing glitches occurring. The first number went to use Brent Reynolds’ speaker system, but we couldn’t get any sound out of it (the volume knob was not turned up, but it was not labeled so we didn’t know which one it was). Brent was momentarily out of the room – but finally Sam Blasucci came running up and he knew the knob to turn. Eva had picked out slides from the Free Wheel Chair Mission website that I had play on a continuously running loop on a screen set-up in the corner to the left of the stage. The transition from the slides to the DVD the first time did not go smoothly. But I finally got it to work, and by the time we arrived at the third and final DVD – interspersing the slides up on the screen between the videos – I had the transition down very smooth. (A complete dress rehearsal would always be a good thing.) The people who attended gave generously. One wonderful and generous family in the ward - someone younger than I whom I admire greatly – wrote a check for $3,000 for 50 wheel chairs! You will see pictures on our blog.
Eva was also busy Saturday in a YW meeting with Sis. Dalton, but Mama has told you all about it.
Mama and I enjoyed driving to Claremont in my truck and attending the Women’s Lives and Women’s Voices. Aileen Clyde, former 2nd Counselor in the Church Relief Society Presidency, and wife of Hal Clyde, a large well-know Utah contractor when I was growing up in Utah, spoke. She must be in her upper 80s by now. She was very articulate and informative. She told her story, what she did as a woman, her experiences in life, on State Boards (she chaired a commission set up in Utah to study gender bias in the legal system in Utah – the report was issued in 1990 taking institutions – including the church – in Utah to task for the deficiencies the commission found) and in the Relief Society. She told how she and her colleagues in the presidency had planned the Women’s Meeting for general conference in 1995, about the various roles and circumstances of women – single, widowed, divorced, married, working, not working, etc. However, Pres. Hinckley had been contemplating the Proclamation on the Family – which had already been drafted by that time. He decided to use the Women’s Conference to announce the Proclamation. That necessitated a change in the planned conference. She gave more details but she said did not want the details widely shared– she said it three times – half-humorously but also seriously. She could tell from the good natured laughter the first time she said it that people thought she was making a joke, given the public nature of the setting, but there was not the laughter the third time she said it. I think that is Mama’s take on it as well. We’ll have to discuss this in person if you want. During the Q&A, I asked her if Pres. Monson had called her to the RS presidency because of her feminist role in Utah. She replied that if the Church leaders had read the 1990 report first, she would never have been called. In relating these details, of course Sis. Clyde is completely devoted to the Church and she did not mean to impugn the church – she is simply out-spoken.
In the afternoon, I played soccer. I went to the FIS field – it was vacant as I started to stripe the field. But then dads and sons started to arrive –only about 10 boys with their dads. The La Canada Jr. Baseball has the field reserved on Saturdays – and although there was room on the upper field for this small group to use – I did not want to incur any ill-will – or even the appearance of ill-will – by asking them to move. However, I sent someone down to the high school to check the field out. It was empty. I quickly taped a sign to the gate and we all went down to the high school. We had about 42 players! We divided into three teams immediately and played, rotating every 16 minutes and 2 seconds. I am not recruiting, but the game continues to get more popular. I wish I had my own field. We had a good time. In my email to the players, I gave them this puzzle: Can any of you give me the correct answers?
I have a garage with three doors, one for each separate compartment o the garage. I also have as prizes Cheryl Cole, a Mazzerati, and a tickets to Manchester United v. Arsenal game. I have placed each of the prizes behind one of the garage doors. Eric wants Cheryl Cole as a prize. I have told Eric that if he correctly guesses the door in front of Cheryl Cole, he may keep her. Eric picks one of the doors. Before I open it, I will open one of the other doors that will reveal either the Mazzerati or the Manchester United Tickets. I will then give Eric the opportunity to change his selection. Eric has chosen Nigel Angold to advise him. Should Nigel advise Eric to switch his choice? Why?
Today we had a fine Testimony Meeting. Several YW bore their testimonies. Sis. Dalton also bore her testimony, since she attended our ward. Mark Goddard gave a sweet and short testimony. Usually they are 10 minutes long and then he stops. Someone must have counseled him. This testimony was three minutes long and he stopped. It was about perfect. Mama also bore a moving testimony about missionaries, including Christian, and about the generosity of ward members, adverting to Eva’s Gold Project.
We had 80 degree weather today. I watered all of the lawns today. I want some more rain. However, it was chilly for La Canada earlier this week. Wednesday morning when I went running, I curled up the garden hose. There was ice on it. I saw several windshields with frost on them! Bu the day-times were wonderful.
Finally, congratulations to Christian, as he finally has been deployed on his mission – the first mission field being the Salt Lake City Mission. He called me Wednesday morning and was very excited. He was going to Salt Lake to begin the next morning. Then Benjamin called with his good news. He just left a message that he had called, but not that he had been accepted. I did not find that out until late that night. I told him that I am not the only one that has recognized his intelligence, diligence and character. He has self-doubts like many of you do. But none of you need to have self-doubt. All you need is humility to go with your brilliance.
That’s all for now.
Love Daddy
Dear Rosalynde, Gabrielle, Naomi, Brigham, Rachel, Benjamin, Abraham and Christian!
We have had an eventful week! Eva’s gold project has been very successful. Eva has been very responsible. With Mama’s support and encouragement, Eva has really carried it of very well. She is composed and articulate as she introduced the concert and explained her project. She organized a very fine benefit concert. She recruited the talent and the kids really came through in fine form for the concert. Eva and Mama conceived the decorations and the arrangement of the cultural hall at the church and it was just right. We set it up on Thursday evening. My truck came in handy hauling everything over there. We put up chairs about half-way back in the cultural hall. We tried out the sound system, I put up a screen and set up the projector and computer. I started the three different video discs to make sure it all worked. The next evening for the concert, quite a few people showed up early. The Lottmans saw the article in the paper and decided to come out to the concert. (Gabrielle, Brian is in Austin – but I think you know that.) Anthony Portentino came. People kept on coming in. so we set up more chairs. We were very gratified. The program went relatively smoothly, with only the endearing glitches occurring. The first number went to use Brent Reynolds’ speaker system, but we couldn’t get any sound out of it (the volume knob was not turned up, but it was not labeled so we didn’t know which one it was). Brent was momentarily out of the room – but finally Sam Blasucci came running up and he knew the knob to turn. Eva had picked out slides from the Free Wheel Chair Mission website that I had play on a continuously running loop on a screen set-up in the corner to the left of the stage. The transition from the slides to the DVD the first time did not go smoothly. But I finally got it to work, and by the time we arrived at the third and final DVD – interspersing the slides up on the screen between the videos – I had the transition down very smooth. (A complete dress rehearsal would always be a good thing.) The people who attended gave generously. One wonderful and generous family in the ward - someone younger than I whom I admire greatly – wrote a check for $3,000 for 50 wheel chairs! You will see pictures on our blog.
Eva was also busy Saturday in a YW meeting with Sis. Dalton, but Mama has told you all about it.
Mama and I enjoyed driving to Claremont in my truck and attending the Women’s Lives and Women’s Voices. Aileen Clyde, former 2nd Counselor in the Church Relief Society Presidency, and wife of Hal Clyde, a large well-know Utah contractor when I was growing up in Utah, spoke. She must be in her upper 80s by now. She was very articulate and informative. She told her story, what she did as a woman, her experiences in life, on State Boards (she chaired a commission set up in Utah to study gender bias in the legal system in Utah – the report was issued in 1990 taking institutions – including the church – in Utah to task for the deficiencies the commission found) and in the Relief Society. She told how she and her colleagues in the presidency had planned the Women’s Meeting for general conference in 1995, about the various roles and circumstances of women – single, widowed, divorced, married, working, not working, etc. However, Pres. Hinckley had been contemplating the Proclamation on the Family – which had already been drafted by that time. He decided to use the Women’s Conference to announce the Proclamation. That necessitated a change in the planned conference. She gave more details but she said did not want the details widely shared– she said it three times – half-humorously but also seriously. She could tell from the good natured laughter the first time she said it that people thought she was making a joke, given the public nature of the setting, but there was not the laughter the third time she said it. I think that is Mama’s take on it as well. We’ll have to discuss this in person if you want. During the Q&A, I asked her if Pres. Monson had called her to the RS presidency because of her feminist role in Utah. She replied that if the Church leaders had read the 1990 report first, she would never have been called. In relating these details, of course Sis. Clyde is completely devoted to the Church and she did not mean to impugn the church – she is simply out-spoken.
In the afternoon, I played soccer. I went to the FIS field – it was vacant as I started to stripe the field. But then dads and sons started to arrive –only about 10 boys with their dads. The La Canada Jr. Baseball has the field reserved on Saturdays – and although there was room on the upper field for this small group to use – I did not want to incur any ill-will – or even the appearance of ill-will – by asking them to move. However, I sent someone down to the high school to check the field out. It was empty. I quickly taped a sign to the gate and we all went down to the high school. We had about 42 players! We divided into three teams immediately and played, rotating every 16 minutes and 2 seconds. I am not recruiting, but the game continues to get more popular. I wish I had my own field. We had a good time. In my email to the players, I gave them this puzzle: Can any of you give me the correct answers?
I have a garage with three doors, one for each separate compartment o the garage. I also have as prizes Cheryl Cole, a Mazzerati, and a tickets to Manchester United v. Arsenal game. I have placed each of the prizes behind one of the garage doors. Eric wants Cheryl Cole as a prize. I have told Eric that if he correctly guesses the door in front of Cheryl Cole, he may keep her. Eric picks one of the doors. Before I open it, I will open one of the other doors that will reveal either the Mazzerati or the Manchester United Tickets. I will then give Eric the opportunity to change his selection. Eric has chosen Nigel Angold to advise him. Should Nigel advise Eric to switch his choice? Why?
Today we had a fine Testimony Meeting. Several YW bore their testimonies. Sis. Dalton also bore her testimony, since she attended our ward. Mark Goddard gave a sweet and short testimony. Usually they are 10 minutes long and then he stops. Someone must have counseled him. This testimony was three minutes long and he stopped. It was about perfect. Mama also bore a moving testimony about missionaries, including Christian, and about the generosity of ward members, adverting to Eva’s Gold Project.
We had 80 degree weather today. I watered all of the lawns today. I want some more rain. However, it was chilly for La Canada earlier this week. Wednesday morning when I went running, I curled up the garden hose. There was ice on it. I saw several windshields with frost on them! Bu the day-times were wonderful.
Finally, congratulations to Christian, as he finally has been deployed on his mission – the first mission field being the Salt Lake City Mission. He called me Wednesday morning and was very excited. He was going to Salt Lake to begin the next morning. Then Benjamin called with his good news. He just left a message that he had called, but not that he had been accepted. I did not find that out until late that night. I told him that I am not the only one that has recognized his intelligence, diligence and character. He has self-doubts like many of you do. But none of you need to have self-doubt. All you need is humility to go with your brilliance.
That’s all for now.
Love Daddy
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Abraham's return and Zions Narrows Trip
MORE PICTURES TOMORROW
September 26, 2010
Dear Rosalynde, Gabrielle, Naomi, Brigham, Rachel, Benjamin, Abraham and Christian!
I had a wonderful time with Abraham this weekend. For the past four months, I had been planning a Zions Narrows hike for those of my soccer players who wanted to do it. When I sent out the invitations four months ago, and about monthly thereafter, I received about 10 “Yes” answers. When it got close, the number dwindled, and finally no one came. However, that left Abraham and me to go together, for which I am glad. We had a wonderful time together. On the drive to Zions, we talked a lot about his mission, as well as about his mission the next day. Since Abraham also stayed up most of the night before ready The Hunger Games, he also slept. He drove for a while during which I finished some legal work.
We drove up to Hurricane Thursday evening. We wanted to go to the permit window early Friday morning to get a permit for the Saturday hike through the Narrows. But then when we learned definitively that no one else was coming, we decided to see if there were any same-day walk through permits available for Friday, then we would do another hike on Saturday and leave Saturday afternoon for Provo. So we were fortunate to get the walk through permits and we were fortunate enough to call the shuttle operator late Thursday evening and arrange for transportation to Chamberlin Ranch. The hike was as spectacular this year as last year, but the weather was a little warmer. The water was just as cold. Perhaps the water was a bit lower, and we did not have to swim through any holes, and the deepest hole was only up to our waists. The foliage was bright green this year, compared to late October last year when many of the leaves had turned. We made the 16 mile hike in 8 hours. I only slipped twice in the river, but caught myself with gloved hands so my camera did not get wet. Abraham did not fall at all. Thank goodness for trekking poles to help keep balance on the slick unseen rocks in the bottom of the river!
We were thrashed when we arrived back at the Temple of Sinawa, and then back at the Visitors Center. We drove into Springdale and stopped to eat at Willies Café and Saloon. The place was quite full, so the hostess took us back to the saloon. We looked at the prices and left out the backdoor. We then drove to Hurricane and stopped at JBs. Should I confess that I did order a turkey dinner from the Seniors’ menu ($6.99)? But Abraham’s all-day omelet was only $7.99. We showered and cleaned up at the motel, finished watching the galaxy game (the Galaxy lost to the Red Bulls 0-2), then went to sleep. We awoke at 5:45 AM, to drive to the Park again to catch the shuttle. This time we decided to do the West Rim trail, which started in the high for north part of the lower portion of the Park. The map said it is a 14.5 mile hike, but my GPS said it was a 19.5 mile hike. We took a longer loop so perhaps the actual distance is between the two numbers. It was absolutely spectacular. There is a part of Zions that cannot be seen from any road. It is only visible by hiking the West Rim Trail. The scenery was stunning, as many breath-taking canyons drained out to the west side of the park. We also saw the amazing upper drainages of the canyons that drain into the main valley of the park. After hike the majority of the distance on a high plateau, starting at nearly 8,000 feet, we descended to the very rim of the main valley, with shear walls dropping off. Back in the 1930s (I assume), the NPS carved out (blasted, I am sure) a path right out of the sheer canyon walls. We carefully took this path, going back and forth, and somewhat up and down, and winding around and finally ascending the promontory from with Angels Landing juts out. Then we followed that trail down to the Grotto. After being beat up the day before by the narrows, my legs, especially the lower legs and feet, we crying out for rest.
We took our water purifier and got our water from springs and streams, and wonderful food mama put together for us. Abraham carried yoghurt, fruit, granola trail bars, fruit and a jar of nuts. I also realized again that on a strenuous hike, one should not worry about over-eating. One burns lots of calories on these hikes, and keeping a steady supply of calories is important. Occasionally, I felt hungry, but thought it was not time to eat. But I realized I did much better by eating. Fresh water from springs and streams is wonderful.
Please see the pictures on our blog. I hope that you all (together with your kids) can make these hikes with me sometime.
Wednesday Mama called me at my office and suggested that I just take Abraham straight to Provo this weekend – since any other time involved too difficult conflicts. I said fine. So Thursday, Abraham packed his school things and we put them in my truck and left Thursday afternoon. In my view, it is amazing how many few things and stuff Abraham took back with him than I remember hauling out of his Freshman dorm. He really learned how to live in a Spartan style no his mission. I had a lot of room left in the truck when we threw his gear in. We drove to Provo by going through the east entrance to Zions Park over to Carmel junction, and into Panguitch and then north through Centerfield to Provo. I love that trip. I think it is so scenic. If I were rich, I would buy a ranch in that area. In panguitch, we stopped at Henrie’s drive-in, and we each got a very delicious thick shake, the kind they used to make and still make in small towns – even much better than In’n’Out. As we drove through Centerfield, we missed grandpa and grandma, who were attending the BYU football game, the unfortunate result of which was a 27-13 loss to Nevada! (How can losing to Nevada even be in the realm of possibility in God’s eternal plan?)
W arrived in Provo just before 10 pm. Benjamin and Christian soon arrived, and with their help, Abraham’s gear was all moved in in two minutes. I then drove Christian back to his dorm and had a nice but short talk about school. I got gas then dropped by Smiths grocery store (about 11 pm at that time) to get some yoghurt and fruit for the drive back to California. I learned that the hottest date, the hottest place to be in Prove on a Saturday night is at Smith’s grocery store. It was teeming with students. I remarked on this to the cashier. She said oh, yes, Saturday night and Monday night are the busiest times at the store, and there are often lines of byu students just hanging out and talking in the stork. (Smith’s is a giant store, so I suppose it is a good place to hang out). Before we were married, Mama and I ended up a store late in the evening (probably even Saturday evening) buying ice cream.
I didn’t see much of Benjamin. When I returned, he was helping Shayla with computer stuff (that is the story I heard, anyway). Benjamin gave me his bed so I could sleep, since the rest of the apartment would be up later than I needed to go to bed. So I finally got in bed about midnight. I was up at 6:00 am and I was off 25 minutes later.
It was a beautiful drive down in the early dawn, except near Beaver, the smoke from the wild fire in the mountains northeast of Beaver really mucked up the air in the entire Beaver valley. Occasionally I struggled to stay awake. The Classical channel on Sirius radio had the most beautiful program on Baroque choral music. I loved it. However, the beautiful music did not keep me awake. I finally switched to the 60s station, and tried to follow the words to stay awake. Finally, when church started in La Canada, I had Eva call me, put her phone on speaker phone (I muted my phone), and I plugged my phone into my truck’s speaker system and listened to the farewell talks for Matt Van Slooten, Mike Gooch, and Mike Weston. The talks were very good, the congregation filled up the chapel and the cultural hall, and Eva’s YW-YM choir sang beautifully. I made it home a little after 2 pm, put things away, and took a short nap.
So that was my fun weekend. (My legs are sore today.)
Love Daddy
That’s all for now.
Love Daddy
Dear Rosalynde, Gabrielle, Naomi, Brigham, Rachel, Benjamin, Abraham and Christian!
I had a wonderful time with Abraham this weekend. For the past four months, I had been planning a Zions Narrows hike for those of my soccer players who wanted to do it. When I sent out the invitations four months ago, and about monthly thereafter, I received about 10 “Yes” answers. When it got close, the number dwindled, and finally no one came. However, that left Abraham and me to go together, for which I am glad. We had a wonderful time together. On the drive to Zions, we talked a lot about his mission, as well as about his mission the next day. Since Abraham also stayed up most of the night before ready The Hunger Games, he also slept. He drove for a while during which I finished some legal work.
We drove up to Hurricane Thursday evening. We wanted to go to the permit window early Friday morning to get a permit for the Saturday hike through the Narrows. But then when we learned definitively that no one else was coming, we decided to see if there were any same-day walk through permits available for Friday, then we would do another hike on Saturday and leave Saturday afternoon for Provo. So we were fortunate to get the walk through permits and we were fortunate enough to call the shuttle operator late Thursday evening and arrange for transportation to Chamberlin Ranch. The hike was as spectacular this year as last year, but the weather was a little warmer. The water was just as cold. Perhaps the water was a bit lower, and we did not have to swim through any holes, and the deepest hole was only up to our waists. The foliage was bright green this year, compared to late October last year when many of the leaves had turned. We made the 16 mile hike in 8 hours. I only slipped twice in the river, but caught myself with gloved hands so my camera did not get wet. Abraham did not fall at all. Thank goodness for trekking poles to help keep balance on the slick unseen rocks in the bottom of the river!
We were thrashed when we arrived back at the Temple of Sinawa, and then back at the Visitors Center. We drove into Springdale and stopped to eat at Willies Café and Saloon. The place was quite full, so the hostess took us back to the saloon. We looked at the prices and left out the backdoor. We then drove to Hurricane and stopped at JBs. Should I confess that I did order a turkey dinner from the Seniors’ menu ($6.99)? But Abraham’s all-day omelet was only $7.99. We showered and cleaned up at the motel, finished watching the galaxy game (the Galaxy lost to the Red Bulls 0-2), then went to sleep. We awoke at 5:45 AM, to drive to the Park again to catch the shuttle. This time we decided to do the West Rim trail, which started in the high for north part of the lower portion of the Park. The map said it is a 14.5 mile hike, but my GPS said it was a 19.5 mile hike. We took a longer loop so perhaps the actual distance is between the two numbers. It was absolutely spectacular. There is a part of Zions that cannot be seen from any road. It is only visible by hiking the West Rim Trail. The scenery was stunning, as many breath-taking canyons drained out to the west side of the park. We also saw the amazing upper drainages of the canyons that drain into the main valley of the park. After hike the majority of the distance on a high plateau, starting at nearly 8,000 feet, we descended to the very rim of the main valley, with shear walls dropping off. Back in the 1930s (I assume), the NPS carved out (blasted, I am sure) a path right out of the sheer canyon walls. We carefully took this path, going back and forth, and somewhat up and down, and winding around and finally ascending the promontory from with Angels Landing juts out. Then we followed that trail down to the Grotto. After being beat up the day before by the narrows, my legs, especially the lower legs and feet, we crying out for rest.
We took our water purifier and got our water from springs and streams, and wonderful food mama put together for us. Abraham carried yoghurt, fruit, granola trail bars, fruit and a jar of nuts. I also realized again that on a strenuous hike, one should not worry about over-eating. One burns lots of calories on these hikes, and keeping a steady supply of calories is important. Occasionally, I felt hungry, but thought it was not time to eat. But I realized I did much better by eating. Fresh water from springs and streams is wonderful.
Please see the pictures on our blog. I hope that you all (together with your kids) can make these hikes with me sometime.
Wednesday Mama called me at my office and suggested that I just take Abraham straight to Provo this weekend – since any other time involved too difficult conflicts. I said fine. So Thursday, Abraham packed his school things and we put them in my truck and left Thursday afternoon. In my view, it is amazing how many few things and stuff Abraham took back with him than I remember hauling out of his Freshman dorm. He really learned how to live in a Spartan style no his mission. I had a lot of room left in the truck when we threw his gear in. We drove to Provo by going through the east entrance to Zions Park over to Carmel junction, and into Panguitch and then north through Centerfield to Provo. I love that trip. I think it is so scenic. If I were rich, I would buy a ranch in that area. In panguitch, we stopped at Henrie’s drive-in, and we each got a very delicious thick shake, the kind they used to make and still make in small towns – even much better than In’n’Out. As we drove through Centerfield, we missed grandpa and grandma, who were attending the BYU football game, the unfortunate result of which was a 27-13 loss to Nevada! (How can losing to Nevada even be in the realm of possibility in God’s eternal plan?)
W arrived in Provo just before 10 pm. Benjamin and Christian soon arrived, and with their help, Abraham’s gear was all moved in in two minutes. I then drove Christian back to his dorm and had a nice but short talk about school. I got gas then dropped by Smiths grocery store (about 11 pm at that time) to get some yoghurt and fruit for the drive back to California. I learned that the hottest date, the hottest place to be in Prove on a Saturday night is at Smith’s grocery store. It was teeming with students. I remarked on this to the cashier. She said oh, yes, Saturday night and Monday night are the busiest times at the store, and there are often lines of byu students just hanging out and talking in the stork. (Smith’s is a giant store, so I suppose it is a good place to hang out). Before we were married, Mama and I ended up a store late in the evening (probably even Saturday evening) buying ice cream.
I didn’t see much of Benjamin. When I returned, he was helping Shayla with computer stuff (that is the story I heard, anyway). Benjamin gave me his bed so I could sleep, since the rest of the apartment would be up later than I needed to go to bed. So I finally got in bed about midnight. I was up at 6:00 am and I was off 25 minutes later.
It was a beautiful drive down in the early dawn, except near Beaver, the smoke from the wild fire in the mountains northeast of Beaver really mucked up the air in the entire Beaver valley. Occasionally I struggled to stay awake. The Classical channel on Sirius radio had the most beautiful program on Baroque choral music. I loved it. However, the beautiful music did not keep me awake. I finally switched to the 60s station, and tried to follow the words to stay awake. Finally, when church started in La Canada, I had Eva call me, put her phone on speaker phone (I muted my phone), and I plugged my phone into my truck’s speaker system and listened to the farewell talks for Matt Van Slooten, Mike Gooch, and Mike Weston. The talks were very good, the congregation filled up the chapel and the cultural hall, and Eva’s YW-YM choir sang beautifully. I made it home a little after 2 pm, put things away, and took a short nap.
So that was my fun weekend. (My legs are sore today.)
Love Daddy
That’s all for now.
Love Daddy
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