We went sledding at Murray park one day during my sabbatical, it set me back some on the pneumonia. But, we did have fun.

Gingerbread Contest

Thing one and thing two (Maddie and Sage Burton) came over to decorate Graham Cracker houses. I participated by eating the black jelly beans and the green gumdrops.


Jensen won best recreation of a Gothic Cathedral, complete with flying buttocks and stained glass windows.

Maddie based her creation on the Jeffs family compound in Colorado City.

Sage wins the award for the best use of gumdrops on the roof.

I was grateful Lane included a carport/tool shed for the riding lawnmower and the snowmobile.

Sister Salsa

What a fun Christmas picture from Ailsa, a little Houston snow in the background.

Christmas Bathroom Project

I was given a six week sabbatical in December and January from work. It was a good chance to get some things done. However, I fell deathly ill with pneumonia the very first night and so my activities were limited. We did get our bathroom sink and tub and shower area tiled. I had lots of help from Becca with the cutting. Contrary to the previous tile jobs I have done, I did all the cuts on one day and then laid the tile the next day after returning the tile saw. We think it turned out pretty well. The "tiles" are 24 inch stone squares.

Atheism at Christmastime

Most atheists like to think that they are intelligent and astute. One of the first things you learn in Philosophy is that you cannot prove a negative. So, how can they say with assurance that there is no God?

Gerald the Fish

While we were at the river in August we had an interesting thing happen that I thought we should record. We thought we took pictures. But, we can't find them anywhere.

One afternoon Lenore and Laney spent some lazy time wading in the river. After some time they were able to spot a couple of fish. They are a little hard to notice because their green color blends in well with the water and the bottom of the river. Lenore sent Jensen in to get some cheese to feed to the fish. We all got quite a kick out of doing this. One of these fish was quite large, about 18 inches in length. They were careful to keep their distance. But, at one point the big one came up to Lenore's foot and either bumped her toe or tested it to get her attention to throw more cheese or to see if her toe was good to eat.

Recent Pictures and the Bishop's Retreat

We had a very nice Bishop's retreat in November. Unfortunately , Bishop's Dahle was out of town and Bishop Hawkins wasn't able to attend until Saturday (I think) so we didn't get to visit with them as much as we would have liked. Once again it was downtown and they put us up at the Marriott hotel. We had a nice tour of the City Cemetery conducted by Bill Rowley. Some very interesting and moving stuff. You wouldn't think a cemetery tour would be all that interesting. But, it was very enjoyable. At dinner on Friday we sat with Dusty Casey and had fun getting to know him. He is assistant manager at the Hotel.



More pictures HERE.

Ailsa Mission Pictures

HERE.

Ailsa on Lonsberry Saying the Pledge

Click here.

Riley Roo

We've had Riley over a couple of times lately. So, she can play with Lane. So Ben can work late. And, so Ben and I can ride together. We gave her the pick of our pumpkins. She chose well. We thought we'd get a picture of the whole gang together.

Saturday and Sunday I pretty much wiped out my to do list. My workbench is finally clean. It has literally been years. I had purchased some broken rear derailleurs for parts from eBay, partly to try to fix my broken Carbon Crew Derailleur. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do that. But, I was able to piece one together just from what was there. I swapped it into mom's bike and sold her old Campy Record Titanium derailleur for $100. I only need one more part for a whole nother derailleur. Going to start combing eBay for bits.

Last Nice Weekend

Had a very nice weekend last. It seemed it may be the last Hurrah of the perfect weather we so often get here in Utah between April and October.

I worked a little late Friday, not very much, just 45 minutes. We got a case at 4:15 from a correspondent in the Northeast. I was a little ticked because, you know he was probably fiddling with it all day trying to solve it without any outside help and then sent it to us at the last minute. Anyway, Barry and Dan and I stayed and by 6:15 we had it figured out. I helped some. But, I also almost sent us home without finding the living heir. Dan read the crucial obit more carefully than me and caught my error. Anyway we did some good work and fancy footwork to solve it and it ended up that we were the third company to call the heir. That's probably an indication that the correspondent should have asked for our help earlier.

We had a hoedown of sorts at Prosperity. So we all dressed in our “Cowboy” attire (jeans, white t-shirt, me black boots, Lenore purple boots, Laney in whatever we can get her to wear) and went to the party. I spent most of my time as the designated event photographer. That way I didn't have to worry about dancing. Someone had brought two lambs and a goat and the kids and families were all trying to get their picture taken with the livestock. I just took a lot of pictures because you can't get kids to do what you want, let alone animals.

I got to spend a little time catching up with Laverne Davis who was there with most of her kids. It was good to see her.

I arranged a bike ride with Ben Bayless and Craig Buchi for Saturday morning. Ben was bringing Riley over. We were waiting around awhile for him so Craig and I took off and did a couple of laps of about 3 miles each before Ben showed up.

Ben brought a prototype Carbon Wheelset to test out. It was under 900 grams and costs $6000. Pretty neat. I rode his bike briefly. But, it's too small and squirrelly for me. The weather was beautiful. We went down into Draper and then uphill slightly ending up at the gas station where the climb goes up over Suncrest. We picked up a young guy named Brian on the way. he rode with us for about 10 miles.
We kept up the pace pretty well and I felt pretty good. Did a couple of line sprint type jumps that felt good. Craig and Ben hit it off well and did a lot of talking.

When we returned Lenore and I had a good chat with Ben and then he left Riley to play with Laney.

In the evening we took Leslie with us over to the Youngs and then went to see the new Bruce Willis movie: Surrogates. It was enjoyable and interesting. Lenore and some others really enjoyed it. I was just kinda pleased. We ate dinner at our usual place and then headed home to sit with the Youngs on their patio and chat.

September Saint George

We took a weekend off 18-20 September and went to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Saint George. Grandpa had a bit of a cold and I think he could have felt lots better. I felt a little bad about crashing in on them. Grandma's surgery was supposed to have been scheduled for 22 Sep. But, was postponed once again to the 30th.

The timing of the trip was a little convenient/inconvenient. I got a call Wednesday morning that someone in the ward had died. I got a second call after just a few minutes from Carolyn Preece (RS Pres.) that the widower was rather upset with the ward and it might be best if I didn't call for a while. I called later in the day and spoke to a daughter. It was apparent that it was best if I didn't deal with the planning of the funeral and if I wasn't the one to conduct. If I were to be in town, I would expect to attend. But, I felt my attendance would be a distraction for the family. So, it was somewhat convenient that we were going to be out of town. President Daw and Brent helped with the planning. And President Daw conducted.

I went over to the widower's house Thursday night to talk to him/make amends.

Thus, on a couple of accounts it was good to get out of town. We left Friday at midday so we could arrive with still some evening time in Saint George. Saturday morning Grandma took us to the Rosenbruch Wildlife Museum. I wasn't expecting much and was completely impressed and excited with what we did see. There were probably 150-200 full body big game mounts of all sorts of animals in natural habitat dioramas. Mostly these were of the Elk, Caribou, Deer, Sheep, Goat variety. But, there were lots of others. Very many species. Saw some big game cats. But, no Tigers, no Rhinos, no Elephants. Just about everything else. Lots of very interesting and amazing horns, tusks, and antlers. It was a lesson in the power and love of God.

Later we drove up to Cedar City to see the Compleat Works of Shakespeare (Abridged.) We saw this once before about 10 years ago in Cedar. We were told that they had re-worked the script. It didn't matter. It was hilarious and the whole family enjoyed it immensely.

Once again the car served us perfectly. Got about 19-20 mpg while averaging 80 mph. Of course, we got stopped in a traffic jam right as we re-entered the Salt Lake Valley. A bale of hay had fallen onto the freeway. So they had it closed down to one lane while one guy with a broom swept and a handful of UHP's finest kicked the straw out of the way. They have no concern for facilitating the transport of the people. When we passed they were at the point where they could have just opened it up and let the cars "sweep" the remaining grass "away."

Lenore's Letter to the Editor

Click here.

Read the comments to get an idea of how all over the map opinions are in our "conservative" state.

Legacy Parkway Tour 2009

This is me at the back looking dead right before the final sprint.

This was such a fun race last year I was excited and looking forward to doing it again this year. For various reasons, not the least of which is laziness and even being maybe a little burned out on cycling, I haven't been riding as much this year. I'm in okay shape. But, about 10-15 lbs heavier than last year and not quite up there on endurance and top speeds. Come to think of it last year I could have been in better shape also.

They didn't time the bikes this year. We were left to our own timing. I went down there with Craig and Teal. But, Teal didn't ride. We started near the front of the group. I didn't want to be right at the front because I wanted to have people to draft on. They announced that they didn't want anyone riding faster than 25 mph and they had a police motorcycle and an SUV to enforce that rule. Shortly after the start, I and about 7 other people realized that if we could draft off of the lead vehicles that would be a good thing. I hung with them for about the first 9 miles. I hit the turn around at about 25 minutes. Very close to last year's pace. By then the lead group was long gone and I was being caught by others including Craig. I stayed with Craig the rest of the way, occasionally taking a pull. I didn't sprint at the finish last year mainly because I wasn't sure where to start. This year I pulled out with about 2/10ths mile left (still a tad early, picture above) and wound it up to about 27 for the finish. None of the people in my group responded so I gained about 5 places right near the end to finish about 15th.

River Trip Aug 2009

We didn't get to do our regular San Clemente trip this year, for a couple of reasons that included fear over the economy and a tiff with the landlord over pets. I think Joan doesn't enjoy it that much and Darrell doesn't realize how much fun it is (and good it is) for the grandkids and for family unity and bonding. If I were really rich and magnanimous I would have gone ahead and made plans and paid for it myself.

Instead we were invited to spend a week or so at Kim and Ed's river house. This worked out fine and was quite fun. We did squeeze in one day (maybe two hours) at San Clemente. But, it just wasn't the same.

Normally, I would have planned to leave to go to the river on Friday (7 Aug) right after work. But, we had youth conference planned for that weekend and then Jensen had a concert to go to Sat night and then her friend Sarah had her missionary farewell on Sunday and then a couple in the ward called me Thursday night and asked me to marry them. I did it in Spanish.

So, we didn't leave town until about 4pm and we stopped in St. George at mom and dad's house for the night. The driving trip was largely uneventful. Lenore read to me from Ann Coulter's book Slander. It makes her get riled.

We went shooting a couple of times in Big River. It was blistering hot, 118, 116, 116 for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I rode the bike on Tues morning 30 miles. I was okay for the first half. Rode again on Thursday up to the Parker dam. Again I was okay for the first half. I was not okay for the second half. Lenore said I looked ashen when I returned.

The 80th birthday party for dad was quite fun. We (Kristin) compiled a DVD of snapshots through the years. There were a couple of pics I had never seen. I don't think dad was too put off for the attention we heaped on him. Wade and Kimberly had planned on leaving Monday night. But, they were guilted into staying until Tues morning. They honked and waved at me on my bike ride as they left town on the Ehrenberg road.

We left Big River in the morning on Thurs and drove to Irvine to spend a little time with Wade and Kimberly. It was Friday afternoon that we went to San Clemente. We had to get our legs wet and eat some pizza and ice cream. It was a nice enough day. But, it was a little crowded and the tide was high and there was a “ditch” as there sometimes is after heavy surf.

Friday evening we took Wade and Kimberly to Islands to eat and really enjoyed ourselves. Afterward we watched Lost in Austen. Our first introduction to this fun new film.

Cut the Head off the Serpent

I've given a lot of thought lately to how the Government gets changed and how we can return to following the Constitution. The biggest problem is the Federal Government has power as long as it is funded. Because of payroll withholding, we can't not pay income taxes and if they start running low on funds, they can just print more money. So, it is pretty hard to take that "power" away from them.

I think what happens is they dig their own hole. As was seen recently, foreign countries won't always be willing to buy our debt and give us cash. And, if they keep making stupid decisions and ruining the economy and our businesses, and angering the populus, recession hits real hard, tax revenues drop and things start to fall apart. So, I imagine things will have to get worse and we will probably need to rely on food storage and supplies to tide us over until we can pull ourselves back out of the hole.

I just hope someone like China doesn't try to take over while we are down. Who in the world would come to our rescue?

Nice Weekend

That was the weekend that was. It was very nice.

Friday evening Lenore and I went out to eat at the Paradise Bakery. We have eaten there only once, after Lauren went through the temple, in American Fork. It's a bit of a trendy place. But, fortunately it was very uncrowded Friday evening.

All I have to say is the food was very tasty. I had the tuna. Lenore had a quiche. It was all very pleasant and satisfying.

We then went by the Smith's and picked up Missy, Natalie, and Leslie and went to see 17 Again, again. Almost better the second time. Very cute movie. I'm about ready to ask for Zac Efron's number.

Afterward we stopped at the Basket-Robbins right next to the theater and had some ice cream. It was a very nice time. The evening was still hot and the sky was clear. A beautiful summer day. This time of evening, this time of year.

Saturday morning we attended the temple along with some people from the ward. The new young couple, Darin and Talauna Canova were there.

I wasn't sure I needed/wanted to get in a bike ride. But, went anyway after we got home from the temple. Even though it wasn't quite in the full heat of the day, I did see 102 degrees on the bank sign. I was a little piqued.

Down in Draper, I saw the remnants of their parade, among which was a "redneck hottub," a truck with a plastic liner in the bed filled with much water and a couple of bikini clad girls. The driver swerved near me to try to make water slosh out. The girls screamed.

Later in the day I tried to post about this on Facebook using my phone and also tried to include an obtuse reference to a bit from the movie "The Sure Thing" about getting cited for not having a load not properly tied down. The status update feature on the phone only allows a limited input field. So, the comment got split into two posts. All it did was confuse people and I lost an opportunity for a clever joke. :)

One of the burners on our stove was on the fritz. I was able to fix it and get that going again and avoid serious financial peril.

In the late afternoon we went to Leslie's house to swim in the pool. Most of the Smith/Mughal/Taylor clan was there for an impromptu party. I REALLY enjoyed myself floating in the pool soaking up some sun. The water was in the low 80's. I ran out to get pizza at Big Daddy's and we sat and chatted until after 8pm.

Back at home we toasted marshmallows into the setting of the sun while the cats policed the backyard.

Preston, ID

Last Saturday was our second time up to Preston in two weeks. First was the Goff family reunion and then the Johnson family reunion. Preston is a nice town. We visited Uncle Verl Goff who has a soft serve ice cream machine in his house. That was very impressive for the young folk. He also has a fun Coi pond in his backyard. The fish were none too comfortable with us gawking at them though.

The weather was nice both Saturdays. We had fun this last week visiting with all of the Woolley cousins. Natalie was in town. The kids wanted to go ride their bikes into "town" to a store. Some of the adults (Natalie) were a little apprehensive. Daniel Taylor asked if anyone had a GPS they could borrow. For heaven's sake, it's one block that way and two blocks that way. They survived. We live in a different age.

'Kung Fu' star found dead

All I want to know is if they found a pebble in his hand.

Yesterday

Just because something appears to be inevitable does not mean we have to facilitate it even though it is wrong.

Uncle Jay

Orson Scott Card had the following column today:

Here are my thoughts:

I think, perhaps there is a clarity of thought and action that the Spirit is able to communicate in urgent circumstances. Although it may not be a big deal, this very possibly will be a life changing event for Aaron.

When I was a Boy Scout we had the responsibility of running the local fireworks booth as a fund raiser. This included setting up the booth. The Scoutmaster (my uncle) and a couple of us boys were struggling with the assembly of several ungainly panels of the booth. Suddenly, the roof started to fall. The boys all ran. But, my uncle stepped in to catch the falling panel. I was struck (figuratively) , first by my very quick reaction to abandon all, and second by my uncle's clearheadedness and courage to do what he did. Now, I was probably too small and weak to be of much help. But, I realized that an adult would immediately know and do the right thing. That stuck with me and has helped me since then several times react with courage and clarity in emergencies.

Obama and CAFE Standards

Did IQs just drop sharply while I was away? - Ripley

Disaster!

I had a major disaster with my bike on Saturday. My rear dérailleur has been shifting a little sloppy lately. It seemed like it needed to put more tension on the chain. The chain was as short as it could be. So, I decided to adjust the mech. I did not touch the limiting screws. But, when I got on the bike to ride, the part swung into the spokes and disintegrated breaking two spokes along the way. It was a pretty expensive coast down the driveway. The dérailleur was $720 and the rear wheel (with dedicated carbon spokes) was close to $500. I am trying to work out their replacement.

Thought for the Day

I still take alarmists with a grain of salt. But, I've lived long enough to see what I thought was over the top concern in the '70's for the encroachment of "Humanism" and the dangers of Nationalized Education to have come true.

A(H1N1)

I hereby pledge that I will not start fist bumping instead of shaking hands.

"Carnival" night at McMillan Elementary School. You could dance in the darkened gym with dorky pre-pre-teens. You could wait in line for an overpriced hot dog or hamburger dinner (and pay more than they asked for, like I did.) Or, you could spend 10 minutes with a bunch of screaming kids in a pit of soap bubbles. At home you have to pay these kids to get in the tub. But, in front of public and peers they will fork over good money for the priviledge. It didn't take long for Laney to aspirate some bubbles and choke and gag for a while. Fun over.

We meddle too much.

We meddle.

River?

People don't like to be meddled with. We tell them what to do, what to think. Don't run, don't walk. We're in their homes and in their heads and we haven't the right. We're meddlesome.

Letter to the Editor

Here

Marathon Bike Tour

I did the Salt Lake City Marathon Bike Tour last year and had a lot of fun. It was really my first introduction to “racing.” I decided a while ago to do it again this year. But, I'm not in nearly the shape I was last year at this time. And, I may be 15 pounds heavier than I was last year same time. So, as the day approached I wasn't too thrilled and didn't expect to do very well.

Like last year I was going to wake up early and just ride down to the U, because it seems to help if I get some 45-50 minutes warm up. But, Jeff Barton called and offered a ride and I took them up on it. We went a little early because we didn't want to get stuck way back in the pack at the start and we wanted to try to ride around a little and warm up first. As it was, it was so cold there that we just stayed in the car. We were able to get pretty close to the front for the start. Probably within the first 150-200 people out of about 1600.

I didn't have nearly the trouble with slow pokes in front of me this year as I did last year. I started even with Jeff Barton and his son in law Brandon. Teal and Craig were ahead of us and stayed there the whole ride. They changed the route this year and had us go through sugar House park. It may have actually been the real marathon route for us this year. I did more passing than being passed. I was staying behind a husband and wife team on a tandem again. This seems to be a pattern for me. I did this in the Century ride last year.

A group passed me on lower Holladay Boulevard. Brandon was in the group. So, I latched onto the tail. I stayed pretty much with this group for the rest of the ride. For the first little while on Van Winkle there were some wild ones in the group and it was a little dicey. After a while it seemed to settle down some. Except we would get fast and string out and then slow down and bunch up a little. I think the leaders wanted someone else to take the lead and no one wanted to.

The route going into Salt lake was a little different this year also. We went up a slight grade up State street and that strung out my group for good. I wasn't going very fast at this point. Then we went down South Temple and wrapped around Gateway. Brandon was about 100 feet ahead of me going down the stretch. He didn't know I was gunning for him. So, I was able to catch him at the tape. Teal and Craig had come in a couple of minutes ahead of us. Jeff came in a couple after.

I turned in a decent time. I was within 1 mph of last year's speed. So, I was pretty pleased with it, considering my shape.

Walker Wedding

This is a picture from the Scott Walker Jodi Haney "Wedding." They actually got married about 2 months ago. But, they did a formal shindig on 11 April. Scott's mother is from Scotland so the all got into their Scottish kit. There was even a bag piper. It was very nice. We had been to the SL Temple in the morning to do sealings with the Youngs before Charlie left on his mission. We were real anxious about not being late to the wedding. So, we left the temple a little early. We were 15 minutes late to the wedding. But, ended up waiting an hour for it to start.

Hmmmmmmm?

People today believe that man evolved from apes but can't accept that men can become Gods.

Iowa

Is it time to start talking about revolution and secession?

(40.240131963149764, -112.19346208869865)

I've never owned a gun. We changed that in the middle of January. I went to Cabela's and bought a little Browning Buckmark .22. Now some will say why bother? If you want a gun for home defense you should get a shotgun or at least a bigger caliber. If you want a gun for hunting you need a rifle with a more powerful round. If you're buying for concealed carry, it's probably too bulky.

I didn't buy it for home defense or for hunting or concealed carry. But, if it came down to it, I wouldn't not use it simply because it is a small caliber.

Jensen and I took it out early in February to break it in and kill some rocks. We went to a spot out on Highway 73 (click on the link above.) There was a small pit that had been excavated for some reason. We had some things to shoot at besides rocks, a can , a bottle, a box. After we ran through 300 rounds. We used some “stinger” rounds with muzzle velocity of about 1640 fps. They were lots of fun.

Yay Steelers!

We got this really nice gift of a Super Bowl growl towel from Chris Hoke. But, I don't have the heart to tell him there is a little smudge in the lower left hand corner. I might just have to wash it out.

You're Harshing my Mellow!

Ailsa on the Glenn Beck Video

Big laugh. Oops don't look at the camera. "Here's another loser."

Choping for Hange

Some of you may have seen the new "Pepsi" ad campaign.



Here's my response:

OSC and Salsa Last Summer at Workshop

The Funeral

Kim told us Kathy Andreason was ill on 28 or 29 Jan when she was in town visiting. Within a day or two Tom Grassley also let me know. Then in another day or two she was gone.

The funeral was very nice. Tyler did a great job of organizing it and spoke very well. It was very good to see a lot of people. Mom and I sat with Diana and Ray Pratt. And it was good to catch up with Diana. I haven't spoken much to her in over 20 years. I got to see Tom Grassley and of course Steve and Joy and Diane. Shanna was there and spoke and did a wonderful job as did all of the nieces and nephews.

Mike Mabry was there and I caught a brief glimpse of Frits Tessers. I had forgotten that Ray and Diana knew him. I had also forgotten that there was a connection between Randy McCoy (Scott Lillywhite's first wife) and the Vongsawad family. And Ric Starnes (Brittany Porter's father in law) sang a musical number. The families evidently knew each other well in RSM. Mormon Philotic web again.

The funeral was very nice and the Spirit very strong. A true disciple of Christ. So, it wasn't overly sad.

The Car

Jensen called last Thursday unable to start her car. I had her on the phone for a few minutes trying to start it with me listening in on the other line. We couldn't get it going. She even had some local people try to help her that day and the following. They bought some spark plugs and replaced them. That didn't do it.

While Jensen and I were dealing with this I was extremely frustrated because of this problem and also her phone was running out of minutes and I was trying to refill it and I didn't have the credit card or a debit card because we canceled it because of fraud and the new one hadn't come yet. Anyway, it was very frustrating not being able to be there and help. And I saw the parallel between that and our earthly life and how Heavenly Father can't always help and sometimes he needs others to help for him.

I took my tools and some other stuff down to Provo on Saturday when mom and I went for Kathy Andreason's funeral and went to work on it right after the service. I had thought about it all night long the night before. I was only going to try so much and then I was planning on taking it to a auto shop.

About two years ago when we got it inspected it barely passed the emissions test. The tester said sometimes on older cars the spark just isn't terribly hot anymore because of deterioration of various parts. It was suggested at the time that I change the spark plug wires. I never did.

Friday night before we went down I bought some spark plug wires and I was also going to buy a coil. But, the parts store didn't have a coil on hand and they are $180 anyway.

When I pulled off the first spark plug wire the connector came off the end of the wire. I replaced them all. I was going to try putting some gas directly into one of the cylinders to prime it. But, when I pulled out the spark plug it smelled very strongly of gas. So, I was pretty sure it wasn't having any problem getting gas. So it was either not getting a strong/timely spark or the timing belt was broken.

Anyway it didn't start right up. I had to put the pedal down and hold it and crank for about 5 seconds. But, then it started just fine. Whew! What a relief. What a sweet ride.

Porkulus

Our ship is going in the wrong direction, so let's push it faster. This is what liberals disparagingly claim zealots do when they realize they are wrong.

Super Bowl

Nice article about Chris here.

Kathy Andreason Passing

Obituary is here.

A Facebook page dedicated to her is here.

The Andreasons were in our ward since I don't know when. Kathy was always in choir with me and we sang together in Chamber Singers for two years I think. It was especially fun to sort of be an in law, even after Kim and Steve divorced.

The first time I remember her and Ty being a thing was at a Young Adult conference in La Canada Flintridge or someplace like that. Ty and Mark Nebeker and Frits Tessers (who was a cheerleader with the Rams) were the 3 upon whom everyone was focused.

When Ty passed I was at BYU in Church on Sunday morning when the news arrived and I was just struck by it.

I saw her after that from time to time. But, our orbits were getting larger and probably 10 or 15 years passed. Then I saw her at Tamsyn's wedding (I think that was 2005) the first time in a long time. She asked me somewhat poignantly if life had turned out the way I thought it would.

We had shared a large part of our High School age years. She was always the nicest and funnest person to be with and a good example.

Super Bowl Fun - from Kim

Hi,

I just thought I'd share some of our photos from this weekend with you.
We had great fun with everyone, it didn't seem to be as well organized this time we're not sure why . . . Katie heard some rumors from a TSA guy at the airport who had worked security at the game. The stadium in Tampa is smaller than the one in Detroit and it was crowded, at one point while we were trying to get to our seats we had to walk through a narrow spot because they had set up a temporary wall to protect something (a press box??) and there was a great-many-lot of people trying to get through, it was a little scary, once we got so far and realized that we were caught in this mass of humanity trying to squeeze through a cattle gate. I started thinking about the man killed at the Wal-Mart store in the stampede of 'Christmas' shoppers. One guy came up behind us and said. "Excuse me, I have to get through". I just looked at him and said, "You're joking, right?". I could only move where the crowd moved.
The Cardinal fans and the Steeler fans that we came across were great, all of the razzing that I came subjected to was in good fun, all though I'm sure someone somewhere was being a jerk. But my impressions in general were good of all the folks who were there.
Before getting inside the stadium we walked a gauntlet of really obsessive 'Born Again' types, and on our way out too. Tamsyn, Katie and I were together when we were leaving and the 'very nice christian man' with the bull horn stated that women should be at home in the kitchen washing dishes, and having babies (not all at the same time I hope) and not at football games. The Steeler fan in front of us yelled out, "Yeah, that's what I'm talking about!" I looked at him and said, "Good thing your wife isn't here". His friend, says, "Oh don't mind him . . . he's a mormon." "So are we", I replied. . . . silence . . . then I said "You were kidding, but we weren't." I don't know if that was good or bad. There is a definite internal (and possibly eternal) struggle that comes with this opportunity of Chris', regarding going to games on Sunday. We try to go to the Monday and Thursday games and keep Sunday to a minimum, it's hard, we apologize.
Ed, and I, Ryan, Aaron, Cathy and Frank all had seats together at about the 25 yard line, we sat next to the Keisel family on one side and James Harrison's brother was on my left, Ed was on my right, I was a little squished. You should have heard James' brother when he made his run with the interception, I think he was pretty incredulous. He started out fairly soft and got to a crescendo. "Go . . . go . . . go baby brother . . . go!" That was so fun . . . I didn't see the interception because I had my eyes closed, I thought the Cardinals were going to score and I didn't want to see it.
Katie, Tamsyn, Shaun, Cameron, Jordan and Zach were sitting together in the end zone so they got to see James come running towards them. Jaimee and the two boys were on the 50 yard line (usually we get seats together but with the Super Bowl it works out different). Right in front of Jaimee were the guys who play Dwight and Kevin on the office. Near by was Hayden Panitierre (or whatever), the Baldwins brothers and Ashton Kutcher was in a nearby box seat wearing a straw hat. Anyway pretty fun.
At the end of the game at the Super Bowl in Detroit Chris was able to come to where we were sitting and point us out and the security guards let us climb over on to the field, they even helped us. This time it was crazy. They wouldn't let anyone climb over (well . . . some did), which is probably for liability reasons. They forced us to go to the stairs, people were pushing. Santonio Holmes' mother was right behind me with his three children trying to get them to him. She had the youngest a girl and there were two boys maybe about 7 and 5 years old. The 5 year old ended up by Ed and the 7 year old was with me, I didn't want to let him go because I knew who he belonged to (not because of who his dad is . . . but because I knew . . . well do you know what I mean?) Anyway Santonio came up to the wall got his daughter, then we were able to get the other two down to him. That kid was solid and at first his jacket was caught on something and it was crowded but I finally got him up and told him to lift his legs over the rail and sit down. Then his dad came and I started to lift him down, some one next to me helped, I'm sure they thought I might drop him but I wouldn't have. Ed and I and Cathy and Frank were all separated by the crush of people (Aaron and Ryan had jumped). When I finally got to the stairs, I could see Chris reach for Cathy and grab her hand then a tug of war ensued between Chris and a security guard . . . geesh. Where was the respect? Chris won but . . . what the heck. Poor Cathy. Katie and Tamsyn were there too which I was glad of except that Katie was really getting squished around, one guard would say that we could go down the stairs with our Steeler family passes and then another would say, no you have to have a security pass. One by one Chris got all of us down except for Ed . . . he was trying to come but he was being stopped . . . you should have seen the look on Chris' face! He started after the guy but luckily another security guard was observant and took control and got Ed down. Once we were on the field it was fine and calm. Crazy, crazy, crazy.
Anyway the RUMOR, that Katie overheard was that there had been a bomb threat at half-time and not all of the security force was aware of it and that's why it was so disorganized. She spoke to the guy to make sure she had heard him correctly. Still it could just be nothing more than a RUMOR.
All in all it was very exciting.
The people in Tampa (generally speaking) seem to really like honking their horns at the slightest provocation (I mean people honk at Ed all the time, but this was really crazy) and generally speaking the people working as clerks are very impatient with their customers. We met one guy that was really friendly at a Nestle Toll House Cookie Store (maybe it's the cookies that make him nice) but we would guess that he was born in India and had been raised in Britain . . . great accent!

Love you!

Kim

Tamsyn also has some fun insights and pictures here.

Holiday

What if there is no tomorrow?
There wasn't one today. - Phil Connors

Here's One For You

I met with a guy last night whose rent the Church paid in Jan and is paying again in Feb. He left mad at me because he doesn't like MY attitude.

I could write a book. But, I think propriety dictates that I shouldn't.

Yay Salsa!

Sister Elder

Christmas 2008

Lane successfully negotiated the stringent and rigorous interview process posed by her Bishop/Dad and was baptized in July. After years of competing against the two big girls for bandwidth in the household, she is now enjoying a fairly empty nest. She misses her sisters. But, seems to enjoy our undivided attention and also seems to demand less of it. When it comes to bikes, our kids are slow learners. But, Lane learned to ride a bike this year after putting her mind to it for a couple of days. She is looking forward to growing big enough to go on serious rides on the tandem with daddy. If she had her way she would spend all of her free time watching the Spongebob channel.

Jensen successfully completed 4 years of High School and 2 years of Junior College in the last 3 years. So we gave her a semester off for a huge Lollapolooza. Now she has her nose at the BYU grindstone. We were proud of her when she graduated from High School. Unfortunately, the biggest attraction at the event was David Archuleta in the audience. Each of us has at one time or another had trouble negotiating the entrance to the garage with the sideview mirrors on the car. Jensen is the latest to score a casualty in this game and as a result received a nice new OEM Ford Explorer mirror as a Christmas present this year.

While finishing up a 3 year plus stint working at Laser Quest and also teaching Kung Fu at a local private school, Ailsa successfully completed her Bachelor's degree at the University of Utah in English and launched into the LDS Mission life. She entered the MTC early in January and is going to study Spanish for two months and then share the Gospel in the Houston, Texas Mission. She is excited to be going to some place warm and that features yummy Tex/Mex food. Todd had a good number of vacation days to use at the end of the year (after Ailsa finished College and before she began her mission.) So, we spent A LOT of time together as a family STAYcationing at Christmas time, eating, watching movies, enjoying one another, taking a long drink before crossing the desert. We truly miss Ailsa. But, know she is doing a great thing. She has suspended writing for the interim. But, has several books completed waiting for an adoring audience. We recently learned that her uncle Wade met Stephanie Meyer a couple of years ago at some book show thingy in Arizona. He looked at her Twilight offering and soundly pronounced that it would never go anywhere. We are hoping he will make a similar pronouncement about one of Ailsa's works.

Lenore loves to troll the “Interwebs” and pick fights with and educate the unsuspecting liberals or anti LDS she runs into. She has taken Elder Ballard's admonition to "spread the Gospel" via the internet a little too much to heart. We seriously think she wanted another voting fiasco in Florida to provide hours of political entertainment just like in 2000. She has exhausted the local library's supply of books on polygamy and is working on putting together a “Women of Colorado City” calendar to bring in some additional income. She and Ailsa went to a Glenn Beck show a year ago and managed to get Ailsa a couple of dates with the son of a local Talk Radio personality. She loves to venture into foreign culture and is trying to figure out the difference between the hookah and the haka.

Todd participated in two cycling “races” this year and really enjoyed them. He placed fifth out of 715 people in one. He also finally met a cycling goal he has had for some time, completing a “century” ride at a 20 mph pace or better. He also compiled 1000 miles cycling during the month of July 2007. At this point we figure Todd has spent 54% of his married life serving in Bishoprics. This year at the beach, rather than have some kid call Todd an old man (as happened in the recent past), he was resting on the sand down near the water and overheard someone ask if he was alive.

Family Vacations over the last two years included a couple of trips to California and to Las Vegas for niece and nephew weddings and a nice Thanksgiving stay at the Colorado River. One of the California jaunts included a wedding Todd was able to perform for a niece. We also had our normal Beach romps in San Clemente where we concentrated on taking the big girls surfing just about every day. We had a really good rainy day at Disneyland when the park was very uncrowded. We seriously spent more time in line at a Churro cart than we did on average for the rides. We ate lunch at the Blue Bayou restaurant, something Todd and Lenore have wanted to do since time immemoriam. Laney had a loose tooth that was paining her in the restaurant, so Todd pulled it out right there. Later he thought it would have been fun to make a wish on it and throw it into Davey Jones locker. But, we probably would have gotten caught by Disneyland security and tasered on the spot.

Ruby the cat died and we got another cat from some friends. We named him Digory and he's got a great fluffy coat. So, he mostly gets called Puff Diggy and sometimes Snoop Diggy Dogg or Snoopy Dogg Dogg. The other cat, Tommy, loves to go out during the day to rid the neighborhood of any feline rabble. Seriously he has lost several collars in daytime tussles. We imagine a nice stash of them somewhere nearby where his most formidable cat opponent hangs out. It is not uncommon for him to return home with some nasty scratches and scars. Meanwhile Diggy looks at him like Rodney King saying "can't we all just get along."

When we are not studying up on the latest hypermiling techniques or learning ways to fend off attacks by Somali sea pirates, or viewing the first few seasons of Ugly Betty that we missed, We often think of you, all of our friends and family and wish we could spend more time with you.

More Attention from Prop 8 Noponents

Blog for Ailsa's Mission Letters

Click here.

LTM/MTC

When I left on my mission, it was the LTM. I had been to one semester at BYU. My parents dropped me off at John Wayne airport for my first airplane ride. A former roomate and distant cousin, Tom Grassley, picked me up in Salt Lake. I think a girl named Gina Darnall from Urbana Illinois accompanied him. They helped me with my bags into the foyer of the LTM and then waved goodbye. I sat alone in the orientation/induction meeting. I was special.

I am so glad I finally got the chance to do this with family. We were all kinda teary.

We had planned on my giving Ailsa a Father's blessing prior to her departure. The night before she was busy with friends and stuff. We then thought we would do it before leaving the house. But, we were running late and had to pick up Lane and Jensen. We left McMillan elementary school at 11:45. We were supposed to be at the MTC at 12:30. I disregarded all speed limits and drove about 85 the whole way. Once we got into Orem, we could tell we were doing okay on time. Still, we didn't get to Jensen's apartment until 12:20. We decided then to take a little time and do the Father's blessing. I am very glad we did. It was a special experience. Maybe as good for us as it was for Ailsa.

The MTC is a bustle of organization and positive energy. MANY local elderly volunteers helping at every turn. You can't help but feel the Spirit there. I hope many families with potential missionaries, inactive, or non members, take them to participate in this missionary dropping off.

If you want to see the true salt of the earth people and true Law of Consecration in practice, you must go. It is not unlike the Israelites leaving a child at the Temple to serve for years.

Ailsa Gone..... MTC. In case you missed it, here's her contact info as posted on Facebook

Alright everybody! I'm leaving tomorrow, and if anybody wants to write to me, please do! I really hope to hear from people while I'm gone. Let me know about everything that's happening and what I'm missing back home!

For the first 6-8 weeks, this is the address you can send letters to.

Sister Ailsa Christian Lillywhite
MTC Mailbox #158
TX-HOU 0310
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1783

And when I get to Houston, this is the address for now... until I get my first assignment that is.

Sister Ailsa Christian Lillywhite
Texas Houston Mission
16623 Hafer Rd
Houston TX, 77090 (add -4401 to the zip-code is your sending a package)

Goodbye everyone! I love you all, so, so much.

Ailsa