Christmas 2002

The honor of the annual Christmas letter is always left to me (daddy, Todd). Subsequently, I tend to hog more of the column inches than I ought to. This year will probably be even worse. But, Maybe I'll tell you about the others first so you can skip the rest when it comes to me. I could go youngest to oldest or cutest to......Shrek-iest, either way I would end up last.

Lenore should get a prize for being such a good mother. She has such an interest in discussion, debate and many areas of study, and a natural ability to learn and memorize that I see it as difficult for her to leave those things and tend to the kids or the house. But, she does so with marked aplomb and cheer. If it weren't for motherhood and housewifeship, I could see her teaching college history or biology or genetics. She is especially good with Laney who quite often requires all of her attention. Lenore's patience never runs out when it comes to the little one. She reads to her every night for about 30 minutes. Laney's favorite book right now is "a Moose a Muffin" (in Laneyese). I especially like "Goodnight Moon".

There are only a couple of things Lenore does religiously. One is her exercise. Another is taking time to watch a revived soap opera "Dark Shadows". (If you ask me, it probably hasn't been revived enough, it's still half-dead.) She says it's "campy". Is that a synonym for "lame"? We call it "scary show" because Laney often watches it with her. She also likes to spend time on a Sci-fi channel web site chatting to others about the show. Although previously beset with a healthy undaring and a natural lack of affinity for computers and internet navigating, she has ventured forth and has begun to enjoy herself quite a bit with it.

We did a number of house remodel projects in our home this year the largest of which involved removing a half wall in the dinning area and laying down tile in the kitchen, dining, garage entry, and a bathroom. In this project Lenore and the kids pitched in substantially and I think they all enjoyed it a little and gained a sense of accomplishment from it.

Laney was the best baby. But, now has reached the age of two and has become the spawn of evil! Just kidding,... a little. She is still the cutest. But she has quite a will and determination. At the same time though, there are times when she wants just to be held and that's all that will satisfy her. Her language has developed quite well. She has a little quirk in that often the first time she hears something and tries to repeat it she says the word inside out. Is there such a thing as vocal dyslexia? Once she makes a pronouncement we don't correct her much because we think it's cute and even adopt her version. Thus she has a vocabulary of: reeboo (for our cat, Ruby), keekoo(cookie), kinchen (chicken), kiddle (tickle), cursomul (commercial).

My parents stayed with us from July through October while they were having a house built and "Grandma and Grandpa" became "puguh and puguh" (you can treat it like a collective noun, if you like) in Laneyese. Another word variation is "caja moke" (for chocolate milk). I guess this is an improvement since Ailsa said "babbadio'oi" for drink. Laney went through a phase where she had a foreign flair to her language. She pronounced "dolphin" like the French "dauphin" and "more" like "mehr" in German. When we were in Italy she kept saying "goggy buggy". We had no idea what it was except the first part was probably doggy. Eventually we realized she was saying doggy barking. We carried it a step further and started calling her "goggy buggy laney poo".

A week or two ago I was supposed to be watching her. But, I was on the computer. She wandered off and then came back a couple of minutes later eating something. She looked at me with a messy face and said "I wuv cajate" (I love chocolate). She had gotten into a cupboard and found a large bar of dark semi-sweet cooking chocolate. In this case I couldn't just offer my hand and say thank you and have her give it to me. I had to wrestle it from her clenched fist with her kicking and screaming. Any doubts about her heritage were dispelled with this incident. Both Lenore and I are avid chocolate-philes. No chance for a recessive chocolate aversion gene sneaking in. While falling asleep Laney likes to listen to a "Minnie a Pooh" lantern she has that is equipped with a very smalll wattage light and plays outdoorsey, nighttime sounds. It makes me think of Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland.


Although her teeth are really pretty good, Jensen had braces put on early this fall. She's reached that age where she has one foot in adolescence and reluctantly one foot in young adulthood. It will be fun to watch her develop over the next year or so. Our biggest problem with Jensen is that we have to vie with the world for her time. Her friends, and especially her best childhood friend, Kimmie from across the street, would consume her every minute if it weren't for our efforts to the contrary. She has also started going to the private school where Ailsa attends and seems to be enjoying it a lot. I hope that's not just because the homework situation is practically nonexistent.

Earlier in the year there was a bit of a scandal with her sixth grade class. Some of the more socially mature ones were meeting at the mall for "dates" and kissing and generally being dorky. The teachers caught wind of it because it was causing some strife amongst the students. They wanted to nip it in the bud and discuss the behavior with those involved. But, they weren't sure how widely it was known among the kids. So as not to reveal too much to those who didn't know about it, they asked the students to write down and turn in what they knew. Jensen's teacher said she was most pleased with Jensen's paper because all she wrote was: "I'm so confused." It was obvious to the teacher that Jensen was not in the thick of it, not even in the thin of it.

About the private school. No we did not inherit. It's not terribly expensive and miraculously the kids were awarded scholarships to attend. A miracle because we definitely did not meet the financial profile. Thus two kids attend. But, we only pay for one.

Ailsa turns sixteen next December. When I consider the possibility of her piloting 3000 pounds of steel around our city (I'm going to have trouble with her driving my car, I may grant her the privilege of washing it for a year or so before she can even breathe on it), with her inadequate grasp of physics, less than superior hand-eye coordination, and typical teenage concentration abilities I am reminded that as for intelligence and responsibility and general with-it-ness she falls in the 95th percentile and I realize that I'm not nearly as safe on our roads as I feel.

I've told you about Ailsa's Harry Potter affliction (now it's Orlando Bloom from the Fellowship of the Rings, oh! baby!). Last year the Salt Lake Library held a Harry Potter Jeopardy contest in conjunction with the opening of the movie. Lenore thought it would be fun for the kids to go. Ailsa took the grand prize. We teased her somewhat because she was likely the oldest player and most of her competition was the not-very-well-rounded type. So she prevailed over 10-12 year old geeks. Oh, Victory, where is thy honor?

She also attended a two day Orson Scott Card writing conference and enjoyed that quite a bit despite spending two days away from home on a college campus with only her father's temperamental (read possessed) cell phone as a connection to her family. She received a B grade on her first BYU Independent Study course assignment. But since then her interest in the course has slackened somewhat and she has yet to submit another assignment. At the end of last school year she passed the GED practice test so we feel that she is learning at her school.

Speaking of braces Ailsa has finally finished her regimen and enjoys the best smile in the family now. Fortunately, our orthodontist allows us to pay at our own pace.

We had a wonderful family adventure this spring. My missionary group has been having reunions every three years for some time now. We decided this year to meet in Milan, Italy. I had never been back since I returned home from Italy in 1979. Despite apprehensions about the hassle and the cost, we took the kids too. Lenore and I are not big on sight seeing so we tried to plan some leisure time into the vacation as well. We searched on the internet and settled on a small apartment in Santa Margherita Ligure. If you type "Villino Matilde" into any search engine on the web you will find info on it. It doesn't look too great in it's pictures. But, it was very cute and quaint in person and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves for the week that we stayed there and highly recommend the place to anyone looking for somewhere to stay in the area. We especially loved SML, just a stone's throw from Portofino and at one time a big hot spot with the hoi poloi. We found an idyllic Mediterranean beach and among the various yachts we spotted the "Christina O" (no longer owned by the Onassis family.) It is over 300 feet long!

We saw Cremona (where I stayed for 9 months as a missionary), Bergamo, Milan, Turin, Genoa and stayed 5 days with some dear, generous friends near Como. We ate some great food, including about $100 in gelato. We performed wonderfully as tourists and saw many wonderful and ancient things. The kids were great, even Laney. The only downers were the jet lag (but, you really just have to stay awake for a long time, not take a nap and go to bed on local time to get in sync.) The oppressive heat and humidity. Can you say Italian heat wave in June? The unconscionably cramped space provided by the airlines for a trans-Atlantic flight, (Yeager and Rutan had more space on their historic flight with Voyager.) and paying more than we needed to for our plane tickets. I have written about the vacation in detail to preserve our memory of it. If you are interested in hearing more, let me know and I can e-mail you the full account.

It was a great vacation and we are trying to figure out how to get back to Italy soon. We had grudgingly budgeted the money for it. But, it ended up all paid for courtesy of the lady who hit me on my bike.

I was a couple of days into commuting to work on my bicycle when I was struck by a "hit and run" drunken driver on my way home. I was only about a half mile from home when a car approached me from behind and sideswiped me. I was at the hospital for about 6 hours. I received some stitches on my left hand and was scraped up and banged up all on my left side and I had my clock rung real well. I guess one of my two remaining brain cells was killed off. Here comes the preach: always wear a helmet!!!! It's the only thing that saved me from severe injury or death. I have fully recovered and aside from one small scar it didunt afect me in uny way.

Now about the "alleged" hit-and-run, drunken driver. The police had just been alerted by her mother that she had taken off drunk in the mother's car. They found the car parked at one bar. But, the bartender had refused to serve her because she was too drunk. So she walked to another where the police arrested her. The police had the accounts of some witnesses that confirmed she was the one who hit me and I was able to corroborate.

When all was said and done, after paying for the medical treatments, the insurance money came to about $11,000. It was enough to pay for our great trip to Italy and also for some really nice improvements on my bike.

We enjoyed immensely having the Winter Olympics visit Salt Lake City this year. We were privileged to see short track speed skating (with Apollo Ohno) and men's figure skating from a suite at the Delta Center. I had been a volunteer at the 1984 LA Olympics and it was interesting to compare the two and give the kids a chance to experience such a neat event.

The Lillywhites
toddlillywhite@yahoo.com
tesorucciodellam@aol.com
lenorelillywhite@hotmail.com

The Bike Crash (un-edited version)

I was only a couple of days into commuting to work on my bicycle when I was struck by a "hit and run" drunken driver on my way home. I was only about a half mile from home when a car approached me from behind and sideswiped me. Fortunately, out of my whole route, it happened in the only 50 yard spot where there is no curb. I was bumped off the pavement onto the dirt and rocky shoulder where no one with 18 mm tires should ride at 25 m.p.h.. There were some trash cans I had to devote all of my concentration to avoid. I somehow made it past them. But right after that I went down on my left side sort-of over the handle bars. Later I found I must have hit a bump or rock too hard. My carbon fiber fork broke and I had no control.

I awakened somewhat when one of the gathering crowd asked me if I was OK. It seemed like it took me about 30 seconds to answer him. But, I told him I just needed a couple of minutes. I was thinking I would be able to walk it off and ride the rest of the way home. I tried to sit up but collapsed. He helped me off with my fanny pack. Somehow I was able to give him my phone number and he called Lenore on my cell phone. She has told me the short drive to the scene was terrible because she had no idea what condition I was in and traffic was all backed up because of the ambulance and police cars. People seemed instinctively to know who she was when she pulled up.

I kept drifting in and out for about 3 hours. She says I appeared to be conscious. But, just not responsive (so what's so unusual about that?) I also kept repeating myself as if my reset button was getting pushed every so often and I would again forget what had transpired up to that point. They kept me at the hospital for about 6 hours, stitched up a wound on my hand. I wasn't wearing gloves, I always figured gloves were mainly for comfort or warmth. on such a short ride it doesn't seem necessary. But, I wear them all the time now. Besides that I was scraped up and banged up all on my left side and I had my clock rung real well. I guess one of my two remaining brain cells was killed off. Here comes the preach: always wear a helmet!!!! It's the only thing that saved me from severe injury or death. I have fully recovered and aside from one small scar it didunt afect me in uny way.

Bike arguably sustained more injury. (I say "bike" rather than "the bike" because it has assumed it's own place in the family.) It probably doesn't help that a 190 pound man rides a 17 pound bike. It's not meant to sustain much abuse or nasty bumps. Besides the fork, my front wheel was severely out of true, one brake/shift lever was broken (likely from my hand, rather than impact) and several parts were bent or scratched. The bike shop estimated the damage at about $2500.

Now about the alleged hit-and-run, drunken driver. She was in her 50's living with her mother. The police had just been alerted by her mother that she had taken off drunk in the mother's car. So they were looking for her when the dispatcher notified them of my crash. They found the car parked at one bar. But, the bartender had refused to serve her because she was too drunk. So she walked to another where the police arrested her. Mind you, this was at 6 PM in the evening not midnight or later. It seemed the police were out to protect my rights from the start. On the police report they stated that there was $50 damage to her car. I'm a little doubtful that was really the case. I don't think she actually hit my bike, just my leg. I think the police were hedging on my side knowing that later she would deny hitting me at all. She had prior offenses and I think her mother was getting tired of her problems because she let her cool her heels in jail for a couple of days.

The police had the accounts of some witnesses. But, they needed or wanted my confirmation. They came to talk to me in the hospital. When you are getting pushed off the road by a car your vision sort of tunnels in. I was trying to concentrate on those trash cans. I only had a second's chance even to notice the car (I expect she was going 40-50 m.p.h.. I never saw her in my rearview mirror). But, as soon as I said "big green sedan, maybe a Buick," the policeman smiled and seemed satisfied they had the right person. Later looking at the police report, I hit it dead on. Although, if I had to put a model year on it I would have said late 70's and it was actually a 1993. Did they still make big green sedans in 1993?