Your Name is Safe in Our Home

The first "family rule" that Emily and I set after we got married was "no camping." It's a great rule. Since, we've been invited to go camping several times. We don't have to explain that we don't like sleeping on the ground or eating food with dirt in it. We just say "sorry, that's against our family rule." Surprisingly, most people let it go at that. The exception was my dad, who argued with me for about 5 minutes about whether we did, in fact, have a family rule about camping. I won in the end, of course.

Yesterday we attended the Andersens' ward. One of the talks was about gossip and so for family home evening we discussed how our family could apply the principles. After much deliberation, we set a new family rule:

"Your name is safe in our home."

I'm very excited about this opportunity to improve in this dimension. Gossip can be carnally satisfying, but it is a completely destructive form of communication. It does nothing for the spreaders and less for the targets. Emily and I decided on the following course of action to apply our new rule:

1. We will give silent and loving cues to each other as reminders to not speak ill of others.
2. We will not engage gossipers. Even seemingly benign responses like "that's too bad" or "oh" can encourage the blabbing. Instead, we will either completely disengage (by leaving the room) or we will attempt to change the subject.
   
3. We wish to defend our loved ones when they are disparaged in our presence. We do not, however, want to begin a contentious interchange nor humiliate the gossiper. Therefore, when we hear someone maligned, we will counter with a sincere compliment and attempt to change the subject. For example
   
   

   "That Jimmy is so obnoxious. I hate the way he combs his hair."
   "You know, Jim is so funny. He always makes me laugh. Hey, by the way, did you hear about the index of leading economic indicators? Isn't that interesting?"

08/14/06

I've been working on Amelia's baby book this past week - and spent some time looking at photos of her birth. March 13, 2006 will be forever engrained in my memory...what a happy day! Being her mom is great. She learns so much every day and has just recently discovered who I am and what I do. She knows I'm the food lady, the diaper lady, the nap lady, and the kissing lady. It's fun that she knows who I am and she likes me!

Amelia is slowly eating more and more baby food. The verdict - likes peaches, sweet potatoes, prunes, oatmeal, rice cereal and applesauce; doesn't like bananas, or peas...they make her face wrinkle and her body shudder. So far, she hasn't rolled over again...maybe she will again soon when she sees something she wants. I should probably stop getting everything for her.

We spent last weekend at my parents house for Ashley's 2nd reception. It was fun to see people from the ward and show off my baby. KaRynn was there with her little baby, who is only 10 days younger than Amelia, but about 5-6 pounds lighter. Amelia looked like a giant!

Eric is moving out this week to go to school at Westminster College in Salt Lake City. I am so proud of my little brother. He is handsome, smart, funny and considerate. He loves my daughter so much that he has her picture as the background on his new cell phone (so does Uncle Todd). He is excited to play basketball at school - and has been working very hard to pay for everything. He is going ot school full-time, playing basketball, and working part-time. What a great guy!

Summer Vacations

Every summer we make the trek.

Utah is so hot and dry in the summer. We were there for pioneer day, and I pondered the state of minds of our forefathers as they came into the desolate valley that July. I guess after the trip they had made, the Salt Lake valley was an answer to prayers.

It's been nearly 150 years since William Wignall brought his family across the plains in the Willie Handcart Company. We often discuss the trials they endured on the westward voyage, but it seems pretty clear that the trek was just one of many hardships. They arrived at the valley! Yeah! Now what? No home, no cleared farmland, no neighbors, and no certainty about where they would be sent (Brother Brigham sent William's family to Payson. At least it wasn't St. George!).

We enjoyed our trip. There are always more things to do than there is time. We stayed at my parents' home in Farmington, encroaching on Jenny's new "dorm-apartment" in the basement. Barry's brother Mike came down with his new wife Christine and their 4 kids (ages 1, 2, 2, and 5!). We shopped and ate in Centerville on Friday. On Saturday, we shopped and ate in Park City. On Sunday, we rested. On Monday, we shopped and ate in Layton. A good time was had by all.

Seriously we had a good time. On Saturday, I went with Barry to buy a new desktop computer for their home office. We went to several retail outlets and had a miserable time dealing with salespeople. I'm writing this here as a reminder to myself: Dell.com

We made a trip down to Payson to see Dad. He was very lucky; that was Amelia's happiest day of the whole trip. She just smiled and played with him the whole day. He grilled some great steak and salmon. I was glad that Amelia finally got to meet Grandpa Dave and Great-Grandma and Grandpa Mark and Cleo. Amy and Renvic were also there. Their kids are getting big fast. I remember going to the twins' first birthday party soon after I got home from Honduras. They'll be 8 this winter. The younger boys are adorable and they love grandma and grandpa (of course).

We got to see Sabrina and Grandma Shirley as well. Both were excited to see Amelia. Emily and I are grateful for the many wonderful people who love our daughter.

We visited Spencer and Jenny Smith at their home in Sandy. Their kids are loads of fun and I wish I could see them more often.

We briefly visited Brian, Courtney, and Todd in Provo. We anticipated seeing them a few weeks later at Ashley's wedding (!), so we just went to dinner and visited at Todd's apartment.

There are many places in this world that I would like to see, but when it comes time to plan a vacation, the people I want to see are more important. To Utah!

I'm grateful that there are so many people we want to visit. I wish we got to see them all more often.

The Beginning

August 6, 2006

I've always felt that my life wouldn't actually begin until I had children. My patriarchal blessing states that my most important role in this life is to be a mother. When Amelia Grace was born I did actually feel like my life had begun.

And what a life! Everyone in my family knows that I think my life is perfect - and it is, and has always been. Having a baby just added so much joy to my perfect life.

Amelia is growing up so much. Today when I was feeding her oatmeal in her new high chair she started banging on the tray like a drum. I, being amazed, called Chris into the room to watch our genius baby in action. However, he informed me that it was him who had taught her this new ability. He would pound on the tray, she would watch and then she would copy him. To anyone else this seems like a small accomplishment - but to doting parents, this is a marvelous feat and a revelation of how our actions will affect her life. We'll have to be more careful with a copycat around.

This week my sister Ashley got married. When I moved out of the house she was only 16 and didn't wear make-up yet, or kiss boys. Now she is a married woman. She is such a good girl...and was so unbelievable gorgeous in her dress. I love her so much, and I am so proud of her. She just gets it! She understands the gospel so simply and surely. She was never nervous about getting married, because she was so sure that she was doing the right thing. I don't think she knows (I should tell her), but I've watched her sweet faith in her Savior, and my testimony has grown. Now she is moving to Provo so her new husband, Bryan, can finish his degree at BYU. I hope she visits often.

I celebrated my 5th wedding anniversary this past week - on August 4th. I can't explain how great it is being married to Chris. We just have so much fun! I don't really believe that there is only 1 right person for everyone...but I can't imagine anyone else more compatible to me than Chris. It's such a wonder that I get to be married to him forever.

Chris says I have to post more regularly. I'll try my best to write the things I think my kids will want to read, and the things I'd like to know about my parents.

Updates

It's been a long time since I've posted here. The baby has been born and is now 4 months old.

Being a dad is a lot of fun. Amelia is growing and developing in astonishing ways. This week she made her first foray into semi-solid foods. The verdict: likes rice cereal and pears, does not like bananas.

Today she also rolled completely over for the first time (360 degrees). Emily says that the baby looked a bit stunned at her new position.

This weekend we're visiting grandparents in Utah. I'm excited for Amelia to meet my dad and grandparents (not to mention Brooke!). We hope her first trip on a plane will be uneventful.

Simply Amazing

Yesterday (Tuesday), Emily and I got to hear our child's hearbeat for the first time. It was truly a remarkable experience. The doctor handed me a little contraption that looked a lot like a child's microphone/cassette-player set. He squeezed a little bit of gel on Emily's abdomen and then I put the wand/microphone from the doppler machine on the gel and voila! It was incredible to hear that little heart beating. If you pointed the wand in one direction, you could hear Emily's relatively loud and slow pulse (about 80 bpm), while in the opposite direction the baby's heart raced away at 160 bpm! The baby's pulse was also fainter than Emily's, but it was especially fun to point the wand in a 3rd direction and get to hear both at the same time. The book says that at this point in the pregnancy, the baby's ears aren't very developed, so I imagine that about all the baby can hear is mommy's heartbeat. I'm more excited every day.

By the Pricking of my Thumbs

It's late Sunday night and for some reason I can't sleep.

On Saturday night, Emily and I went to see Macbeth at the Old Globe Theater in Balboa Park (my anniversary gift from her). It was a fun experience for both of us. It is an open air theater, so it got a little cool at the end, but fortunately we had brought a blanket.

I really enjoyed the play. I like Shakespeare in general, and though I much prefer King Lear to Macbeth, the production was very well done and it's nice not thinking about all the symbols and themes that are so important in Lear. Macbeth is about ambition, unnatural crime, and madness, with a touch of the supernatural thrown in. It's pretty straightforward for a great tragedy.

One of the Gospel Doctrine teachers had a baby this week, which means I got to substitute on late notice. I used to enjoy teaching, but I think that was mostly because standing in front of everyone satisfied some vain ambition. Well, either that ambition is gone or I've realized that I'm not a good enough teacher to gratify my pride in that fashion because I no longer enjoy it. Now I only teach because I feel bad trying to thrust this responsibility on anyone else at the last minute.

Today, Graton Gathright was called to be in the Elders' Quorum presidency in our ward. That means that of the set of people that were Sunday School teachers when I became SS president in May, only Liz Findlay and Valerie Gathright remain and Liz is on sick leave until well after she delivers her twins. I guess when you have such great people as teachers, you have to expect that the other auxilliaries are going to try to steal them away. For some reason, I find filling teaching positions to be one of the most difficult parts of this calling. I just want to make sure we have the best teachers possible.

I made a lot of progress on my homepage this week. Feel free to look at it by following the link in the sidebar to the right. If you have any ideas, please let me know.

I am happy to announce that Emily is feeling much better. The cold she had earlier this week is gone, but it sure wiped her out. We're excited to visit the doctor on Tuesday where we expect to hear the baby's heartbeat.