The Gift of Food

Esther gave Nathan a birthday present. Knowing that he loves cooking, she gave him an oven mitt. But not just any oven mitt. It is a Snoopy oven mitt with ears and everything. Basically, it is a puppet that belongs in the kitchen. And Nathan is definitely enjoying his gift! Today he broke Snoopy in by making orange creamsicle cookies. He also used a gift one of his friends gave him for Christmas, some vanilla bean paste. So, he had the fancy vanilla and the fun oven mitt and created some fabulous cookies using gifts from his family and friends. And he had fun doing it! And if all those who know him well are very fortunate, he will feed them!

Divine Light

For a good year now, Matthew’s goal was to get to the temple for his own endowment as soon as possible after he graduated. He fulfilled that goal today and it was very much as soon as possible since graduation was last night! Our church leaders were a huge support in getting all his interviews done in a timely fashion, and our stake president was fantastic because he was completely fine with ordaining Matthew to the office of elder a few days before he actually graduated from high school so that temple day could happen today. 

Matthew has been a temple hopper ever since he got his driver’s license. He has driven all over the state doing baptisms at as many different temples as he could get to. During all those visits, he has come to list two particular temples as his favorites: the Brigham City temple and the Provo City Center temple. Brigham City is far enough away that it was not incredibly practical in terms of having any of his grandparents in attendance since age related health issues have seriously colored all their lives in the past few months, so Matthew settled on the Provo City Center temple. The only time I have been inside this particular temple was during the open house, so it was neat to be able to be able to spend some time there.

Since it was a weekday and there were family members who had to work or had health issues that prohibited their attendance, our group was fairly small. Besides Kevin and I, Daniel, Tawni, Nathan, Rachael, Esther, Michelle and Corynn were the only ones in the session. My parents were able to join us in the celestial room as attending the whole session was too rough today, and Aliese did baptisms at the same time as our session. Matthew has never been one who really liked being in the spotlight in his day-to-day life though, so a small group was perfect for him. 

While there were some nerves last night due to just doing something he had never done before, Matthew was very ready to take this step. He has been actively preparing for years and with the switch in the church to talking and teaching more openly about what happens in the temple, which we have taken to heart as a family, I think he was probably more prepared than many youth are to take the next step on the covenant path. When we met in the celestial room after the session, his eyes were so full of light. He has always been a person whose light shines brightly, and today he was just beaming. His first joy filled comment to me was, “I made it!” 

I know Matthew will return to the temple often. It is his refuge, his place of peace amongst the storms of life. When he is feeling stressed or anxious or overwhelmed, he retreats to the temple to quiet his mind and regain his perspective. He has already told me that he has so much more to learn, and I know that over time, he will continue to be taught. I suspect that regular temple attendance is one of the things he will miss while serving his mission. But I also know that taking this step, making the covenants he did today, will strengthen him in his missionary service.

Now we just need to let a few more years pass and continue to let Malia learn and grow so that she can join us in all the ordinances of the temple as well. And what a joyful day that will be! 

He’s Glad to Be a Grad!

Well, he finally made it. After fifteen years of school, the past three being spent in active anticipation for life after high school, Matthew finally graduated. The actual ceremony only lasted two hours despite the fact that there were 900 graduates in his class, and Kevin and I arrived on time despite the absolutely insane slowdowns that had us wondering if we were, in fact going to make it. Seriously, we are so, so very tired of all the road construction in our neck of the woods. There is literally no good way to get out of our corner of the valley right now. Everywhere we turn there are more traffic cones. Add 900 students’ worth of family all heading the same direction and you will have an idea of the traffic snarl we ended up navigating. But like I said, we made it, actually found a parking spot and two seats together, and felt like we lucked out a bit with the relative brevity of the event.

Matthew has been very involved in school activities pretty much ever since he hit 8th grade. Seventh grade happened during the covid shutdown, or I expect he would have been heavily involved that year as well. He has been in a concert type band and jazz band since 7th grade and added marching band once he hit high school. He jumped into the world of stage crew as an 8th grader and became the lighting lead at both his middle school and high school by the time he was done. And as a senior he added choir to his rolodex of activities. Add in three private trumpet students, involvement in the theater department from time to time, and a healthy dose of social activities, and we honestly haven’t seen Matthew in about five years. 😂 

The band didn’t play for graduation, but the choir students sang the school hymn (not the school song, our high school has two separate anthems) so Matthew got to sit right up front with all the madrigals which was exactly what he wanted. These are the kids who have been his social group all year, the ones who welcomed a band kid into the world of choir. Some of these kids are ones he has known since elementary school, and one of them was even in his preschool class. Along those lines, Matthew’s 6th grade teacher was at graduation. Matthew’s sixth grade class was his very first class, so he attended the graduation to basically commemorate his first year of teaching and celebrate those kids who were in his first class. Matthew met up with his little crew from that year and they were able to take a minute to celebrate this milestone in their lives. There were five of them that were in that class that are still friends. And several of them were in vocal jazz with Matthew his year. Thinking back on those days when they were small, it seems like time has gone very quickly.

As I’ve mentioned, Matthew is glad he is finally done. Over the past year, he has become increasingly more frustrated with some of the foibles of some of the teachers he has worked closely with. He is totally over all the high school social drama, although luckily, he has been able to ride mostly on the periphery of most of it. He is ready to be out on his own, to be his own boss, and to be able to take more control of his life. And for the most part, I think he is ready. Like all young adults, jumping into the real world can be kind of a shock, but we have tried to prepare him and teach him some of those necessary skills that being an independent adult requires. So hopefully he will transition fairly easily, because he will be leaving the safety of home pretty darn quickly.

I think today was one of those reality check days for me. Although we have known for months that Matthew would be going on a mission, we have all been in the mind set of “we can think about that after graduation.” Well, with graduation officially over, we have hit that “after” we have been talking about for months. And we don’t actually have all that long to get him ready to go. I guess life never actually slows down. It just changes direction once in a while. And it looks like it’s time for me to switch back into mission mom mode.

Bao Bounceback

Apparently, Nathan is my child. Because his bao did not turn out as beautiful as he would have liked last week, he made another batch today to redeem himself as a cook. I do things like that all the time. When something doesn’t turn out just right, sometimes most of the time I have to try again to get better results. And most often, I end up needing to try again immediately so my brain can let it go and allow me to sleep. It’s one of those perfectionist tendencies I have. And honestly, sometimes it is a little annoying. I mean, why is a less than perfect cookie so devastating that I have to make a new batch right now so that I can feel good about myself? Seriously, being a perfectionist can be a drag. But at least Nathan waited a whole week before he made bao again. I suspect that is a much healthier way to approach improving upon one’s cooking skills!

Daniel was at work this time, but Tawni was on board for another bao filled day and her sister Charlotte joined the crew as well. And I’m going to be honest. Charlotte, as a bao novice, created some beautifully pleated bao that are far prettier than I have ever been able to make. The unpleated ones still taste just as good, but gosh, I wish I could make them that pretty!

I guess that means I need to make more bao…right now. 😂 

D.C. al Fine

This evening was the annual band banquet and the very last band event of Matthew’s last year of high school. The title of the event was a misnomer as it actually wasn’t a banquet but an awards ceremony/end of year celebration/seniors’ spotlight with light refreshments. Basically, it was a chance for the band kids to look at all they have done this year, thank this year’s band leadership, introduce next year's band leadership, and recognize the seniors who have finished their high school band journey. While not all the seniors received awards, the band teacher did present some to those students he felt most deserved them. Matthew received the Quincy Jones Musicianship Award, for contributions and creativity in multiple areas of music. He also received his music letter award as well as the eight additional bars he earned for participating in many music related activities over the past three years. There is only one student in the school who earned more bars in music than Matthew did (the president of one of the choirs) and Matthew is very proud of how much he has accomplished.

This year’s band experience ended as it started for Matthew, with some disappointment, frustration, and maybe even a little anger. He didn’t always see eye to eye with the band teacher and honestly, he had just cause for irritation on many occasions. But we won’t dwell on that, we’ll just say that Matthew was extremely dedicated and gave his all to the band program for three years. He spent hours and hours practicing and without any professional guidance, despite years of trying to find a private teacher for him, his ability increased remarkably, and he came away an amazingly skilled trumpet player. He set some high goals for himself and accomplished most of them, still giving his all those that didn’t quite come to fruition. He has faced some challenges and been put in some difficult situations, but he has risen to the occasion time and time again. While not an actual award of any kind, I think the fact that he was the only student invited to play with Hot House West at the last Jazz Mentors clinic and performance of this year speaks highly of his technical ability as well as his musicianship.

I think overall, Matthew is leaving the high school band program with a bit of relief. He is ready for what’s next. And when he returns from his mission, he is very much looking forward to joining the college band community.

On a lighter note, I have several other band related comments. First, the cupcakes I made for Matthew were about a million times better than the Walmart bakery quality cupcakes the rest of us got. AND as of this evening, I have officially unsubscribed from the band calendar. And it makes me so very, very happy. Because some events were on there twice-once as an all-day event and once with actual times, although most of the time they were just listed as all day events because obviously no one needs to know what time things are actually happening. And there were events almost every single day for something or other related to band. And every once in a while, the band teacher’s dentist appointments and such would show up on the band calendar…basically, being able to unsubscribe has been a fast, easy way to clean up my entire calendar. So, I guess that means I’m a little bit relieved to be done with the high school band program as well. 😂

Jumping the Gun

Although Matthew doesn’t actually graduate until Thursday, he was given the Melchizedek priesthood and ordained to the office of elder today. This slightly premature ordination was done with the full support of the stake president so that Matthew can attend the temple for his own endowment this Friday. I’m so grateful that our leaders are spirit of the law folks as Matthew’s preferred temple will be closing for cleaning starting next week and the only time they had available for a living endowment was this Friday. We’ve reminded him that the ordinances are the same in all the temples, but he has favorites, and the specific temple really matters to him. So, I’m grateful everything is working out in order to accommodate his preference.

Matthew has never been one who loves to be the center of attention, so our gathering today was small, our immediate family (including Tawni), my parents, Cory, Michelle, Coryn and Aliese, with our stake high counsel representative rounded out our group. It was a quiet affair, but a big step forward for Matthew. And he has a few more big steps coming up later this week.

Joyful Music

Last night was Matthew’s ever high school choir concert. While he has always been a band kid, this year being a choir kid has provided him with the happy, safe place that he needed. He has made new friends, had new experiences, used his trumpet skills to augment vocal music, designed all the lighting for the choir concerts, and generally been the all around get it done guy to help things run smoothly. So basically, he has done what he has always done but extended his reach to cover the choir department as well. 

All the choirs sang at this concert, which made it so, so long, almost three hours. But musically it was very diverse and was pretty fun. Matthew had a fantastic trumpet solo that he didn’t tell us about, one that was beautifully done, and which brought a lot of depth and power to the music. The vocal jazz groups performed several numbers that we haven’t heard in the other concerts we have attended in the past several weeks. And the lighting was fantastic, spot on for each group and each song. And all designed by Matthew in the day and a half before the concert because that was when he was given the cues he needed to design the show.

I know Matthew is going to miss the camaraderie he has found in the choir program this year. But I also know that he is so grateful for the chance he had to be there. The Spirit was definitely a part of his being asked to join the vocal jazz group and at the time it happened, none of us knew just how much of a difference it would make for this last year of his high school experience. But the Lord knew what he needed. And we are all so very grateful for this chance that Matthew had to be a part of something that has brought him such joy.

Disneyland Do Over

Instead of doing a big tour for the entire band program, this year the band director set his sights on a tour focused on the indoor percussion team and planned a smaller, shorter tour to Las Vegas for all the band students. Matthew had absolutely no desire to go to Vegas so way back last fall, he decided he was going to tour with the choir instead this year. As time went by, the Las Vegas tour was scrapped for an ever shorter and more cost-effective trip to Lagoon. But even that plan failed to come to fruition, so Matthew was thrice glad that he opted early on to travel with the choir.

Southern California was the destination for this year’s choir tour and although Matthew was there last year with the band, that tour was so disappointing for him in so many ways that he was actually pretty excited to get a chance to do it again. Last year, the group of friends he was with was focused on the rides at Disneyland, so all Matthew got to do was stand in lines and take rides. He missed out on all the other charms the magical kingdom has to offer. This year he got to rectify that and did some shopping, saw some sights, ate more Dole whip, and even made it to Cars land, something that he was sorely disappointed about missing last year.

Last year’s tour only allotted the kids about an hour at the beach, but this year they spent an entire afternoon basking in the sun and playing in the sand. Matthew spotted a pod of dolphins during their time at the beach, which is always cool but extra exciting as he has spent a considerable amount of time on his hobby of wildlife photography, which he has come to love.

The band teacher forgot to register for the festival they had planned to participate in last year, so they didn’t even get to create any music on that tour. But this year Matthew got to sing in a festival in which our high school did tremendously well, coming away with the best choir program award as well as the best all around ensemble for the madrigals. 

Another highlight of this year’s trip included enjoying all the charm of Camp Snoopy at Knott’s Berry Farm. Snoopy is one of Matthew’s favorite cartoon characters, so it was a fun stop for him. And my sister Esther, who is a Snoopy fan as well, was mightily jealous!

Due to some problems with one of the replacement bus drivers, the kids didn’t make it home until nearly 1:00 this morning rather than the anticipated 9:00 p.m. yesterday arrival time. Matthew was completely wiped out. I woke him up twice so he could go to school as he had planned, but when he failed to get up after those dual wake up calls, I decided he probably just needed to sleep. I think that assessment was correct, because later this afternoon when I mentioned waking him up several times, he admitted with some surprise that he didn’t even remember them happening even though he sat up and looked at me and everything. 😂

I hope Matthew came away from this tour with more fond memories than he did last year. And despite the physical and mental strain that such a whirlwind tour takes on him due to worries about food, inability to sleep well, etc., I certainly hope he sees it as time well spent. I certainly would. I mean, doesn’t eating Dole whip at Disneyland with his friends kind of make all of it worthwhile?