Welcome to the Army

Malia doesn’t like setting her alarm in the summer, so I usually wake her up at 8:00. I was super focused on other things this morning and lost track of time so at 9:00, Matthew asked if he should wake her up. I answered in the affirmative and apparently, he grabbed his trumpet enroute because 30 seconds later I heard “Reveille” playing from Malia’s room. 😂

Needless to say, she was not amused. 😜

Modern Day Army of Helaman

Today was another cousins’ temple trip to the Taylorsville Temple. Jacob, Rachael’s oldest son, came home from his mission in Germany exactly one week ago and was in attendance today, so Nathan took the day off work and came down to join us. In addition to Nathan and Jacob, we had Matthew, Malia, Drew, Sabrina, and Kate. Matthew, Jacob and Drew all performed baptisms as well as being baptized and Nathan and Jacob both performed confirmations. It was so neat to be there with this group of worthy youth and young adults. The world they are growing up in is far less than ideal and to see this rising generation stand strong amidst the storm is both humbling and inspiring. Their love of the temple and their willingness to serve there often helps strengthen them and is such an amazing example to me. I know I’ve said this before, but sometimes I feel like I’m learning just as much from them as they are learning from me. This is one of the many things that brings one of my favorite scriptures to mind. “For the preacher was no better than the hearer, neither was the teacher any better than the learner; and thus they were all equal.” (Alma 1:26) I may be one of the parents charged with bringing up this rising generation, but I feel immensely humbled by that role as I catch a glimpse of their potential and the great force for good they can become.

His Chinese is Showing

Nathan has been in desperate need of a vacation, so he has taken a few days off work this week for a mini “staycation.” He has been wanting to make bao for months now and since cooking is a happy thing for him, he scheduled his maiden voyage into steamed buns for today. He has been peppering me with questions for about a week, everything from ingredients to methods to measurements to equipment. He called twice today and did a FaceTime call once to check on additional details. End result? His bao turned out perfectly! They are beautiful and he assures me that they are also delicious.  He says, “Perks to knowing how to make bao: I don’t have to share with ANYONE.” 😂

I’m incredibly pleased that his heritage matters to him and that he’s taking the time to learn how to cook the food of his people. 😊 Plus, he’s right. When he makes it, he is the boss of the bao!

Genetics

Today’s post is courtesy of Nathan who, halfway through a walk today, was reminded that he looks just like Kevin. 

It’s true that Nathan is the one of our children that looks the most like Kev which is kind of entertaining considering the fact that personality wise, he is exactly like me. 😂

Holy Ground

In October of 2019, I took Malia to the one and only women’s session of general conference she has attended. It was the first one that she was old enough to attend and she was super excited. We met with my sisters and Rachael’s girls for dinner at my mom’s house before the meeting. Lona, Kevin’s mom, who is in the same ward as my folks, joined us. After we ate, the two grandmas, Malia and I headed over to their stake center to watch the broadcast of the meeting. Malia, who was super excited, wanted to sit in the very front row, so Lona and I sat with her right up front. My mom needed to sit further back so she left us to crane our necks while she chose a more comfortable viewing location.

This particular stake center was my stake center from the time that we first moved to Utah until I moved out to go to college. When we first settled in Taylorsville, it was our normal Sunday meeting house for a while. It was an older chapel, even then, and had the original unpadded wooden pews in the chapel. I remember loving the primary room in that church because it had identical wooden pews but sized to fit children.  I absolutely loved that they were just my size! Not too long after we moved, a church was built across the street from my parents’ house, so we began having our regular Sunday meetings in the new building. But there were still plenty of events that took us to the stake center, one of which was our stake conferences. Things are different now, but back then, there was a separate meeting for the primary children. We would gather in the primary room to sing and have activities and lessons while the adults attended the general meeting. Our stake also did road shows and stake musicals and all kinds of fun things. And many of them were held either in the stake center or on the adjoining property that had a big, covered pavilion and a softball diamond as well as a large expanse of grass. Ward BBQs were held in the pavilion and I remember many happy events spent eating and playing and enjoying the company of my friends. 

Now let’s jump back to 2019. As we have come to expect, there were new temples announced in that general conference. But in all my memory, that was the only time the new temples were announced in the women’s meeting instead of a general session. In addition, while announcing a dozen or so new temples has kind of become the norm in the past few years, at that time having just a small handful was more normal. So, when Pres. Nelson announced the building of eight new temples, it seemed like a lot. Not only that, but the last temple on the list was to be built in Taylorville, Utah! A palpable wave of excitement rippled through the congregation there as the sisters assembled rejoiced at the news that a temple would be built right there in their city! My mother-in-law was overcome with emotion and even for me, although Taylorsville is no longer my home, it was an exciting announcement! Little did we know that at that moment when the temple was announced, we were sitting on the very spot where the Taylorville temple would be built. Only two months later, it was announced that the old stake center would be razed, and the temple would be constructed in its place. The following year, the church was demolished and construction on the temple began.

The temple was completed this April, and we were able to view it during the open house in May. My parents, Kevin’s parents, Daniel, Nathan and my sister Esther joined us, so it really was a family affair. The temple was beautiful, of course, and it was so neat to be able to see it with our families. Although Daniel is the only one of my kids who ever attended church in the old stake center (and he was far too young to remember that), the traditional Thanksgiving gathering we have had with Kevin’s family each year was held in the cultural hall of the stake center up until the time that it was torn down so we all have memories of the old building. And those of us who were together in the stake center when the temple was announced were together again for the open house.

The temple was dedicated on June 2 and although I thought we would not be able to attend because we don’t actually live in that temple district, the procedures for attending a dedication have changed so Kevin, Matthew, Malia and I were able to go! Once again, we were joined by my parents, Esther, and Kevin’s mom, who came with Connie, Kevin’s sister. This is the first temple dedication Malia has attended, and I was so glad she was able to experience such a special meeting. For a while there we got to attend quite a few dedications as the ones for all the Utah temples were being broadcast over a wide area, but that has changed and now they are only being broadcast for the specific temple districts. It makes sense, it just means Malia has not had multiple opportunities to attend temple dedications like all our boys did. In addition to participating in a wonderful event, we got a little bit of a surprise in that my high school choir director was directing the choir that sang for the dedication. It was fun to see that he is still able and active, and my kids were able to see the teacher that I spent a lot of time with during my three years of high school. 

I feel like today has brought us full circle. This morning Matthew and Malia were joined by Kate, Sabrina (Rachael’s girls), and a friend of Sabrina’s to do baptisms at the Taylorsville Temple. I sat in the baptistry while they worked their way through the ordinances, and it was a tender mercy to do so. The headaches have been so bad the last while that I have not been able to go to the temple as I normally would. So just being able to be there today was a balm to my soul. And it provided Matthew and I a time for a quiet mother/son talk that was definitely guided by the Spirit. 

I have a tendency to get teary every time new temples are announced because I know that there are saints all over the world who will be able to go to the temple a bit more easily and a bit more frequently. I have been so blessed to live somewhere that has many temples close at hand, but I know that outside of Utah that is not the norm. And when I have those quiet moments of revelation, guidance, and peace in the temple, I am reminded of just what a blessing it is. While this new temple is close to so many others, it will, like all the others dotted across the world, provide more faithful members opportunities to serve and learn in ways that can only happen in a holy temple.

Indiscriminate Age

You know you are getting old when you think of a holiday as just another day. Unfortunately, I must be aging significantly because today felt like just any other day. We didn’t go to any parades or fireworks displays. We didn’t have any sparklers or poppers. We even neglected to create our traditional tri-colored beverages. The kids didn’t care about the whole fireworks thing as they saw big fireworks with Kev’s family last weekend and had no preference one way or another where sparklers are concerned, so we just skipped it all.

On the flip side, perhaps I’m still a bit young at heart because I loved the creating and eating of our patriotic sheet cake pancakes and the red, white and blue ice cream sandwiches. I haven’t had an ice cream sandwich for years because they always have chocolate in some form or another and chocolate is bad for me. So, I really enjoyed creating my own! My pinwheel cookies didn’t turn out quite as pristine as I had hoped, but that was in large part to some universal cookie problems we’ve been having over here that I’m pretty sure are related to a change in the consistency of the margarine we use. It has been highly frustrating for both me and Matthew as recipes we have used for years are suddenly not working as they should. For instance, this particular cookie recipe is the same sugar cookie recipe I’ve used for decades but it was so soft and sticky this time that even after two days in the freezer and with no time allowed for defrosting, the dough was soft enough that I could cut it easily and had to be careful so that the logs wouldn’t get smushed as I sliced them. Seriously, it is ridiculous. They still taste good though and since I was the one making the dessert decisions, I made the ice cream sandwiches nice and thick. They were so tasty!

Whether young or old, Independence Day was low key for us this year. I guess we did at least honor our country by eating the most American dinner the kids could think of-hamburgers, chips and dip. But overall, we didn’t really do the whole big celebration bit. That doesn’t mean that our feelings about our country have changed, I think it just means that we are all focused on other things this year. And I think that’s ok. In our hearts we are still true red, white and blue. The outward manifestations of that were just a bit more sedate this year.

Into the Wild Blue Yonder

Kevin’s dad was in the Air Force, so as he was growing up, things were all about the airplanes in his family. As such, it seemed perfectly appropriate that I should be initiated into the grand event that is an air show several months after Kev and I got married. Having no real idea what I was in for, I happily agreed to go. That evening, I returned home with one of the worst sunburns I’ve ever gotten and a massive headache from the heat. Needless to say, I have never attended another air show. I am glad that I experienced one though, so I have a frame of reference for the many that my boys have attended. I just don’t love planes enough to risk the misery that a long, hot day in the burning sun brings me.

With that bit of history noted, I once again introduce a guest blogger to report on an event I did not attend. This time Matthew has shared a few thoughts and just a few of the hundreds of amazing pictures he took today:

This airshow was my first experience with the Air Force Demonstration Team, the Thunderbirds. I've seen the Blue Angels numerous times, but never the Thunderbirds. It was a wonderful show of force from the aviation of this country, and it was quite the perspective seeing the shift from the Japanese A6M Zeros and the P-40, all the way to the F-16's, and the F-35's. I was able to bring my best friend Alex, and she had a wonderful time as well. It was a joy to be there with the people I enjoy being with. It ended up being hot and I got mildly sunburned, but overall it was totally worth it. At the end of the day my right eye was red right in the place where I squinted to look through the camera's viewfinder. It was quite the time, and I enjoyed it, and would go again with the same people.

No Regrets

Malia got back from girls camp this morning. She was smelly and tired and happy about being smelly and tired. 😂 She has kindly accepted my offer to be a guest blogger as I was definitely enjoying my soft bed and my indoor plumbing while she was experiencing the joys of sleeping on the ground and using a port-a-potty. (I did tell her that she lucked out with the port-a-potty. All of my girls’ camp experiences were accompanied by the…aroma…of an old-fashioned pit potty. 😜)

 I was a little hesitant at first about Girls Camp, but after I didn’t regret my decision at all. The drive up was pretty boring, ‘nuff said. When we first got there, we got fed lunch, then we went to the amphitheater for our welcoming devotional. The Stake leaders then told all the wards where we were going for rotations, and we all headed off to our respective locations around the camp. Our ward started off with Archery, which I super duper enjoyed! The Archery set up was within walking distance, and so all us girls sang a whole bunch of camp songs on the walk there (including but not limited to: Boom Chicka Boom, Milk, Noah, The Moose Song, and Princess Pat). The bow I started off with was really hard to pull, and so I had to have some help- After I got pulling back the string, I did good! (I only broke one arrow…But it wasn’t in half, It was the top fletching.) Afterwards, we went back to our camp and had ward time. We worked on our secret sister bags, and I made a couple of bracelets for a couple of the older girls. We went to dinner, and had our first evening devotional. We then had a ‘Jesus Walk’ along the trail up by the old archery station. It was dark out, and so they set up fairy lights around paintings of Jesus. After we went back to camp, we all went to bed because we were all so tired.

 On Wednesday, we woke up, had breakfast, and went to the morning devotional. We went to the lake (which was really just a puddle…) before lunch, then went back to camp, and straight to lunch. After lunch, we went to the zip line. I opted not to do the zip line, because it had broken a couple of times previously. (It did once while we were there too.) It was still fun watching the others girls though! Following the zip line, we went back to camp and had ward time. One of the girls put beads in my hair, and of course the beads were green! Green is the best color. *Nudge Nudge, Wink* After ward time, we went off to dinner, and the evening devotional. Following the devotional, we had a whole dance party, in which the boys from another stake, who were camping by the archery, intruded on our party because they were silly gooses and didn’t realize the fact that there was a road for travel, and therefore climbed down and back up the mountain. Needless to say, none of the leaders were happy that they intruded on our GIRLS camp. After the dance party, all the wards chose a primary song of some sort, and we sang it to each other from our camp sites. After this, we all went off to bed.

 Thursday was the last full day we had. We woke up, and had breakfast, as well as the morning devotional. We went to our rotations, and we started with an obstacle course. There was a 7 foot wall…I may or may not had maybe kind of gotten stuck, but it was okay…the other girls were really cool about it. After that, we went to the crafting station at the pavilion. I made a bracelet, and then went back up to camp to get my lunch. After lunch, a couple girls and I went to the hammocks and met with a couple girls from a different ward, and then we went and spent the rest of the afternoon at Archery again. One girl found a lizard, and it was a little bit chunky…because it was chunky and found at Archery, she named it “Fatness Everdeen”. We all laughed about that… After Archery, we went back to camp and had ward time, in which we all started packing and stuff. After dinner, we had testimony meeting, and everyone but me and one of the leaders started crying… I felt so out of place not crying ;) The sunset during testimony meeting was amazing, and there was a rainbow on the other side of the sky as well. There was a storm way off yonder, which we didn’t think much about. UNTIIIIILL….That night was the first night my tent and a few other girls decided to actually stay up and play games. And then, that storm from way off yonder I mentioned came right on top of us, and we all had a freak out. We all ran to the leaders cars, and finished freaking out there. In the car I was in, we all jammed to Frozen… It was quite entertaining. After it stopped raining, we all went to bed. It was that moment, in which my tent and I created most of our inside jokes.

 Friday morning, we woke up, finished packing, and then did camp awards. I got the award of “Crafty Comedian”. After that, we went to our last devotional, and went back to our camps. After checking around and packing our last things, we got on the road headed back to the church.

It was a very very good week, but needless to say I was glad to be back home.😁👍🏼