My favorite veteran

would have to be my dad. Definitely.

I grew up during the Vietnam War. I remember the draft, the protests, the nightly newscasts of casualties and devastation and prisoners of war and missing in action. It was just a part of life. Yet I know of no one my age that served in Vietnam because thankfully it was over that spring of 1975.
I was 16.

My Dad enlisted in the army when he came home from his mission. He had already entered the Salt Lake mission home when he was drafted. He was sent home while the Church and the government played tug of war with his life. The Church won with the understanding that he was only delaying his entrance into the Service. My mom and dad married while he was in the army. Two months later he was sent to Berlin, Germany for 13 months without my mother. The Korean conflict had recently ended. Dad was a clerk at the Spandau prison where the Nazi war criminals were held. Boot camp and all those rifle and survival training exercises in Yakima prepared my dad to sit facing a typewriter. He may have been through East Germany but I think the enemy was loneliness and boredom. I love that my dad served in the military. Thanks dad and servicemen everywhere who protect our freedoms and this great country.

Sleepyhead

woke up. Once. When he had a firm grip on all that was left of his previous life.

Otherwise he slept in our arms.

And the carseat.

And the baby chair.

His little life was exhausting.

It all happened so fast.

Emily had fall break. We could be in Midland by Tuesday night. Riding in to town for the main event. Except Jenny woke up early Sunday morning. She thought she might have wet the bed. Thank goodness she came to her senses because Max was born in a hospital less than a hour later. All that drama wore him out. He napped for the rest of the week.

He slept if you were looking.

Or not.

With the pacifier.

Or without.

A prodigy of baby sleeping.

Papa came for the weekend.

No one asked Colton about having a baby brother. He took it like a man and ignored the thorny issue.

Their is mischief in this boy but no front teeth. Max is safe from the little vampire.

Maybe.

Kirsten got the Hollywood treatment before her debut in the ward Primary Program. The shades. The tinted windows. The mature driver. She is such a star. Get your autograph now.

Trick or Treat?

You should know Emily has changed her name to Candy Corn.

Week in Review

I am not sure of blogging protocol concerning chatting about General Authorities so I could be breaking some rules here. We had our stake conference last weekend. Lonny picked up Elder Zwick from his hotel to drive to Bartlesville. He asked all about the family and told Lonny about his. His wife is a relative to Ralph and Helen Lake, my stake president in Eugene when I was a child. He built the Portland Temple. He has a daughter named Jenny and married to John Eyring, son of President Eyring. He has been to Eric's mission and told a story in stake conference about the Mayan people of Tuxtla Gutierrez. He personally assured me that Eric's mission was a safe part of Mexico. On Sunday afternoon we had dinner together. Emily was the unfortunate only kid there so she got more attention than she desired. Lonny told the gathering that Emily has memorized The Living Christ. She was asked to recite her favorite part and she performed like a champ. Wednesday at dawn, I had her recite the full version to my seminary class.

Monday morning was Justin's first day in his new job as a lawyer. There were days in his reckless youth we thought he might need one. When Justin was little I suggested he drive the Keebler truck so we could eat the cookies at lunch time. A mom can dream.

This morning Jenny called and she had had the BABY!!!! Baby Max did not wait for Grandma. Or the epidural. So, yeah, that's what happened.

Something from nothing

I leave for a week and now there is a practically a Quiktrip on Elm Street. I have waited 15 years for a Quiktrip in Jenks. Now they build one. Fine.

I will miss you.

Or maybe this post should be titled nothing from something because the First Baptist Church sat here before I left home. Emily and Eric went to preschool in the brick building to the right but graduation was in the missing building. Emily still has piano lessons in that white house.

Here's the closeup, only the foundation remains. As if the Church was just taken up to heaven. Hmm, well they did build a big new building, so mystery solved. Probably.

When we moved to Jenks I wondered why there was nothing built along the river. That's considered prime property anywhere but here. This future restaurant wasn't there when I left town either but now it sits between the Jenks bridge and the Aquarium.

I thought we were in a recession. You can't tell around here.

Free agency and cleaning the tub

We spent the weekend with the newlyweds. Geoff looks as if he has the strength and stamina to pick up his own dirty laundry but apparently not. Why isn't that a recommend question?

Lonny and I attended his 25 year law school reunion. (I don't know why they don't wait 25 years to throw the bash, 1985 wasn't that long ago.)

While Lonny and Geoff disappeared for a few hours to the Priesthood session Alayna and I hung out. We didn't realize we would see Alex Boye

or Jericho Road. That's Michael Mclean leaning against the wall.

I coerced a photo and then edited myself out, they were too cute together and I just looked third wheel cute. There were authors signing books and oh yeah, Sherrie Dew and Wendy Watson wandering around. It was like Santa's workshop when all the toys come to life. We walked through Temple Square and the visitor's center.

Sunday afternoon we all went to General Conference. The ten or so people sitting in front of us were German. Geoff was accused of speaking Bavarian. The members beside Lonny were from Australia. The traditionally dressed on the other side of Geoff didn't speak English but probably call South American the homeland. We thought we were in the international section but than remembered we were from Oklahoma which only seems like a foreign country. Our fellow Okies came to say hi and then surprisingly one confessed to being a first timer to Temple Square. We had to ask what took so long, surely crossing the plains is less cumbersome than the Atlantic.

We visited my parents and my sister. I wish I had a picture of my nieces beautiful baby boy. He was just six days on earth but had the hair of a 16 year old. Okay maybe not Justin Beiber but close. In the span of five days my cousin had a girl named Malone and my niece named her boy Stockton. The whole family gasped over what b-ball player names were left for the unborn. Not to worry.

Kareem,

Abdul,

and Jabbar (my personal favorite).

are all still available.

We ended the whirlwind visit with Lonny cleaning out the tub drain. I am confident you would want to thank me for not picturing that event.

Look, she's over the moon at the clean tub drain.

Won't you be my neighbor?

I called my neighbor from the airport yesterday but I am thinking I should call more often. It won't come as much of a surprise that we are moving to WA next year. My family knows. My friends know. My neighbors know. We have talked with our neighbors about where we will live. Last night, after returning from a week in WA and a few days in UT, I listened to the messages on my answering machine. My neighbor had called while I was in WA to say that they had just returned from WA. It was their first trip and she wanted to now know exactly where we would live. Because they want to be our neighbors. Again. If only I had told her I would be their last week. I could have shown her.

That would have been so odd to just run into my OK neighbors here.


And to my WA neighbors: don't worry, we won't bring everyone.