CSI

Quick trip to Las Vegas for Brandon and Kelli's wedding.

The drive wasn't too horrible considering we were only there in the city for about 28 hours.

All of us (Mom and Dad, the Porters, us) had much strife about getting lost and following directions.

We stayed at a nice Hotel and Laney got to swim some in their pool.

We had a very nice time at the Groom's dinner. I got to see Tom Grassley for the first time in probably 31 years and meet his wife. We had fun speaking with them and Steve Andreason.

Jensen watched the little kids at Kelli's house during the dinner. It was hectic because there were a lot of kids. But, she made $$$$ and said she still wants to have lots of kids.

Once we actually found it and arrived, the temple was very nice. The sealer was Pres. Bruce Stucki. I recognized his voice right away from his April 2006 conference talk. Joey stole the show when he came in to be sealed to them. He was looking around and waving, not paying attention at all to the ceremony. But, it was very touching to contemplate the great blessing this is to him.

Gioacchino Rossini

Laney had a "great day" on Wednesday. To celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday they had a green eggs and ham breakfast at school. It was a little bit of a fiasco because they found out late that they didn't have authorization to deal with raw eggs in their cafeteria. They soon got someone on sight who was duly trained in the proper handling of all things ovoid and able to spot salmonella bacteria with the naked eye at ten paces and the kids were adequately pleased.
I know the Health department has to worry about making people ill. But, how many lame brains handle eggs every day? Besides I'll bet the green dye kills all germs:)
In the evening all three girls went to a dress rehearsal of "Cenerentola." That's Italian for "little girl who sits in the cinders and goes to dances in glass slippers." Laney was especially excited. I am just glad she was able to sit through almost three hours of it without really being able to understand what was going on. She couldn't read the subtitles very fast, I'm sure. But, then young imaginations are probably pretty good at filling in the blanks when they don't have all the information. All three girls loved it and especially enjoyed seeing Lenore's brother, Dan in the chorus.
Late last night I was switching channels on the tube and came across the first "three Tenors" performance from 1990. I remember Ed showing this to us when they visited once. (He's not really into Opera. But, had really enjoyed watching the interaction of the singers and the conductor.) I watched it again simply for this aspect. I will have to make the big kids watch it for kicks. The setting at the Baths in Caracalla is magnificent.

Jensen Morp (Prom) Picture - Alice and the Mad Hatter

So Jensen's date shows up to get her for the dance and I'm getting acquainted. It turns out to be one of the Young Men in our ward whom I have never met before. We invited him and his family to Church.

Letter from Mommy

Fifty years ago!!!
I remember it well. We were living in Bell, California in a little 2 bedroom apartment at 6524 B Loma Vista Place. (Karl and Diana LeSueur also lived in the same little apartment complex.)

I was expecting you sometime around 27 March 1958. On Dec 26, 1957, I began hemorrhaging. Fortunately, I had elected to go to Dr Richard Clark who was the head of obstetrics at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital. He was highly recommended and was LDS. However, it was about a 45 minute drive each way. I don’t remember if he had me come into the office or not. My memory is fuzzy on that. He did tell me that I most likely had Placenta Previa and that I would need to stay down as long as possible. If I could just make it to 34 weeks that the chances of survival for the baby would be greater. My mother came to help and the sisters of the Relief Society were there a lot. On the morning of Feb 11, 1958,1 got out of bed to go to the bathroom and hemorrhaged a large amount of blood. Craig called Dr Clark and he told us to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. We had the old Chevy station wagon at the time and Dr Clark told Craig to make a bed for me in the back and that I was not to sit up at all. With ‘break neck’ speed, Craig got me there and they took me in for an emergency C section.

At the time, Dr Clark was one of the few doctors who was doing a low horizontal incision rather than a vertical incision. The reason being that any future pregnancies would be less likely to rupture the uterus. He told me I would be able to wear a bikini again, too!! Yeah, sure.

They immediately gave me demerol and an epidural. Not many doctors were trained to administer epidurals at that time. He was one of the few. I was awake during the surgery and Dr Clark said I could watch in the mirror above the operating table if I wanted to. That wasn’t too appealing to me, so I declined. I could feel a lot of pulling and pushing going on but otherwise felt fine. I did hear the doctors conversation as they were delivering you. They commented that the umbilical cord was unusually small, about the size of a pencil. One doctor wondered if you might have been oxygen deprived. I think you just conserved your energy because you were very quiet in the womb. They certainly didn’t need to worry about your lack of oxygen —just look at you now and how smart you are!! I told everyone that the Lord wanted you here for a purpose and that you would probably be another David 0 McKay (or at least a Bishop).

You were pretty big for being 7 weeks early. They didn’t weigh you for a few days because you were so fragile. I think they told us that it would be “touch and go” for awhile until they could get you stabilized. We had to leave you in the hospital and in an incubator for 16 days! That was the hard part, especially since we only had one car and we lived so far away. So if you have had any “bonding” issues with your parents that may be the reason why. Hospitals weren’t allowing fathers in delivery rooms or parents in the incubator rooms.

We were left with a hospital bill of $2000 and NO insurance. You were worth every penny!!

We are so grateful that you were sent to us. You are truly a gift from our Father in Heaven. It was a miracle that we both survived. Dr Clark told me that I had lost over 1000 cc of blood and that he had only had one other patient in 10y that had lost that much and survived.

We love you and the wonderful wife you have chosen and our lovely granddaughters!!

PS Karl LeSueur still teases me to this day about the hemorrhaging. We were at their apartment that night playing Hearts when it started. I was losing so he said I had to do this extreme thing to get out of playing with them.

Is that Julie Christie?

Mindy and Shaun Hoke Wedding - Mondo Bizarro/Mormon Philotic Web Redux

We just returned from a very nice but very quick trip to California for the Wedding of nephew Shaun Hoke.

Lenore and I were originally thinking of flying down. But we waited too long and the fares increased. I am certainly glad the brown car works dependably enough to keep making these trips.



Although Lenore was in the midst of a cold she suffered through and I think had some fun.

We stayed with Wade and Kimberly, which I don't think we have ever done. It was very nice and fun. I had about a pound of bacon at breakfast Saturday morning. I had thought of bringing my bike and trying to get a ride in. I didn't. But, could have. Saturday morning after breakfast, I took a nap for a little while. I didn't feel like doing anything.



We met Mindy's family at the dinner Friday night. They were very nice and in many ways reflected and intersected our own family. She has a sister who looks a lot like Lauren. Her mother resembles Kim and her grandmother resembles Bonnie. In fact, Bonnie dated her grandfather (not such a big deal dad says because she dated everyone.) Mindy's great uncle was engaged to Dawna Rozsa when he left on his mission and then his brother (Mindy's grandfather introduced her to Claire Rosza.

One of Mindy's uncles served a two week training mission in the Orange III ward when Wade was Stake Mission president and in fact he resembles Wade.



We got to see Aron. This was the first time Laney has seen him, we think. Chris Hoke was also there. In fact, he missed the birth of a child by a couple of hours because he was in town for the wedding. This is the first time I have seen him in a couple of years and Saturday night he showed me his Super Bowl XL ring and let me touch it.

Brandon and Kelly were there with Joey. Kelly's adoption of Joey was final last week and we got their wedding announcement just a couple of days later.
When grandma and grandpa saw Joey they rhetorically asked him what was happening next month. Kelly had to remind him and then he said, "Oh yeah, we are adopting Brandon!"

The Temple was very nice. We had a tough time being quiet enough in the waiting room and also outside waiting for the couple to emerge.

As always it was great to see California. There is just something about the place, like it is heaven in waiting. Although it rained a little, I'm sure it was much better than Utah. When I napped on Saturday morning I was so groggy and it was quite peaceful. There was very little noise and I didn't feel like there was much pressing for my time.

I enjoyed listening to the roundtable discussion from the latest leadership broadcast on the way down and we all enjoyed Victor Borge on the way back.

Birthday Present Wrapping and Card by Lane

The Legacy of President GBH

President Daw called me within minutes of the passing of President Hinckley. It has always been difficult for me to imagine Pres Monson as the head of the Church. I was surprised that Elder Uchtdorf was chosen as counselor. But, Lenore nailed that one.
I wanted to listen to the funeral. But I also wanted to take a bike ride. I was able to do both by tuning my phone web browser to the Church website and getting the streaming audio feed.
This was possible because of the tecnology. But, more importantly because President Hinckley took advantage of the technology.

Staring Into the Gaping Maw

Yes, I'm turning 50 on Monday. My body confirms it (some arthritis in the hands during the colder months, persistent back problems that I have to stay on top of with stretching and therapy). My mind, however still thinks I'm in my early 30's.
Here's a catch up: If you haven't seen Lars and the Real Girl, Dan in Real Life (common thread here), Music and Lyrics, or The Holiday, they are all pretty good to very good movies.
I haven't written a Christmas letter and at this point, probably won't.
The weather has started to turn a little bit. We've had so much global warming this winter I can't stand anymore. I really think if I was no longer Bishop, we might consider moving somewhere warm.
The last time I rode my bike was 24 Nov until the last Saturday in Jan. I finished last year just 63 miles shy of 4000 miles, all at an average of slightly over 19mph. So far this winter I have managed to keep from gaining too much weight, only up 10 lbs or so from the summer.
The Christmas lights are still up and probably will be until Easter.
We are all in mourning over the withdrawal of Mitt Romney. However, we are mostly mourning because the "Republicans" couldn't see the good case for his candidacy. We have large swaths of black cloth draped about the house, like the Italians. We may just write him in anyway come November. I don't want McCain. Better to have a real Democrat, than one who disguises himself as a Republican. Let Hillary or Obama be the Carter to Romney's Reagan in 2012.

Laney Pirate