San Diego Bliss

Thanks to the kind gifts of passes from Scott and Laura, Dad and I flew to San Diego last week (January 17 through 21) to see Eliot, Angie, Madison and Mitchell. It was a bright spot of sunshine in a January season--not just because San Diego is a picture perfect destination, but because it was so good to be with our family again after many months of separation. Mitchell, of course, has grown into a handsome, little toddler with a perma-grin and wide, blue eyes that take in the world. He loves trains and cars, so a parking lot is heaven to him as he chants "cars, cars, cars." He wasn't quite sure what to make of us at first--two strangers who acted as if he should know us well, but he warmed up and we loved it.

He is an explorer who loves the world, and we particularly got a kick out of the way he runs, with short, little legs that round out to the side instead of straight forward as he dashes at life.

Madison has grown up so much since we've seen her. She has entered the little girl stage with intelligent observations and much to say. Occasionally she leans over and whispers something, so you have to lean way in to hear her. It's a secret! I had alot of fun with Madison because we played and held hands and sometimes I carried her when she got tired. We brought her a gift of stacking dolls, so it was fun to take them all apart and pretend they were a family.

In this picture, Madison got a flower to blow to the wind. She also gave Grandpa and me each flowers as gifts. Imagine flowers in January! Eliot and Angie live on a beautiful, wooded private court in Carmel Valley close to work, church, the beach and the freeway. It is hard to imagine a better location. Their home is flooded with light through the day so it is extremely pleasant and Angie, as always, has organized and beautified it.

Madison let us sleep in her room. Purple letters march along the wall that say "Madison," and everything looks so fun. She loves to paint in their sun room and was excited to show us her artwork.

Grandpa always has a way with children. When a baby is crying, he is the master of distraction and can immediately take their mind away to something interesting. He loved playing on the beach with Madison and Mitchell.

Every day was packed while we were there. We went to Point Cabrillo lighthouse where from the promontory we could see the pristine blue of the San Diego bay. We hiked down through Torry Pines to the beach and played in the sand.

Dad and I are both wearing sweatshirts here that Eliot lent us--appropriate for us. Dad is wearing BYU and I am wearing University of Utah. Eliot is an equal opportunity sweat shirt owner.

Isn't this such a cute family? I love to see these pictures because it reminds me how sweet and good life is. Sometimes the burdens of repeated tasks, the tedium of every day makes you forget.

Eliot asked, "Is it hard to believe that I am a Dad?" He's a great one, endlessly patient and good-natured with the children, willing to get up in the middle of the night. I got to go to Eliot's Sunday School class and he did a great job there, too.

We got to see where Eliot works in a corner office with windows that he vied for with a colleague and won.

Angie does everything well--including being a great Mom. Madison is so polite and helpful. We arrived the day that Angie had just finished being in charge of Joy School for the week and Madison had an outline of how to set the table.

We toured the areas where they are considering buying a home. And particularly poignant for me was going to the Hotel Del Coronado, an elegant, turn of the century hotel right on the sea that looks like it comes right out of Somewhere in Time. I say this because my parents came here to a Lincoln Life Insurance convention in May of 1948 and arrived feeling very romantic. The old lobby is just as it must have been with mahagony paneling and red, patterned carpet. It was almost as if I could close my eyes and see young Maurine and Joel arriving, not having had a baby in 7 years--and I came nine months later. Not everyone knows such a detail about their life, but I do, and so walking through the Del was like a collapse of time and I could sense my parents.

Thank you to Eliot and Angie for making our time so special with you.

Songs I Love

For Christmas I got Scot two albums from the BYU choruses because we love Mac Wilberg’s arrangements so much. The house has been filled this morning with these glorious praises to the Lord. I feel the Spirit as I listen and they seem to take me to an achingly sweet place of familiarity inside. It is as if every limitation, every wall of frustration or earthbound blockade is suddenly lifted and I see. I could soar. I could shout praises. I particularly love the words to two of the songs. The first is “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”

Come, thou fount of every blessing,

Tune my heart to sing thy grace;

Streams of mercy, never ceasing,

Call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me some melodious sonnet,

Sung by flaming tongues above.

Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,

Mount of thy redeeming love.
O to grace how great a debtor,

Daily I’m constrained to be!

Let thy goodness, like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for thy courts above.

What I particularly love in these words is the “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.” Oh how I am prone to wander sometimes because of distractions, pressures or frustrations, and I want with all my soul to be fettered to God because His Spirit is so powerful in my life and when I don’t have it, I am truly bereft. I want to cry and cry when I hear those words and I wish I could kneel at his altar and say, “Here’s my heart, O take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above.” Please forgive me for my wanderings.

O to grace how great a debtor I am personally. I feel that debt and that sacrifice from Christ, and when in these moments every cell is transfused by this light, all I want to do is give my all to serve.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,

Wandering from the fold of God;

He, to rescue me from danger,

Interposed His precious blood.

How can I thank the my Lord enough for this gift? I’d like to memorize these words.

My other favorite song on this album is the Shaker hymn, “How Can I Keep from Singing.” It is as if it were written just for me.

My life flows on in endless song:
Above earth’s lamentation
I hear the real though far off hymn
That hails a new creation
Through all the tumult and the strife,
I hear that music ringing;
It sounds an echo in my soul:
How can I keep from singing?

This speaks to me of moving through this dim and dreary world with an endless light source, a song of joy that surmounts all else. I love, love this. When I contemplate all this it feels like the truest expression of my soul.

Oops, a Mistake

January 12, 2008--Saturday
Today we took down the Christmas tree and nativity sets. We left them up this long because their light warms the house in leafless January and the Christmas tree so alive and supple, I had not the heart to banish it. When, however, I went to replace the flower arrangement on top of the piano, I came to a realization. We had spent a day transferring boxes to our new attic in the garage, and there was the flower arrangement. We have always had two identical flower arrangements because they were originally created for the two girls’ bedrooms on the second floor at Plum Creek Lane. I assumed the flower arrangement in the garage was the extra—the second one—and though I had some hesitation throwing out a perfectly good flower arrangement, it is so large that there is no really good place to store it, so I took a deep breath, and trying to embrace my new attitude of being able to shed a few things, I cast it to the garbage.

It was not until I went to restore the flower setting to the piano that I began to remember that I had cast the second one into the garbage months ago in another bold effort to clear the garage. The one that I had recently thrown away—yes, you got it—was the first—the one that goes on the piano. It dawned on me only slowly what I’d done—coming to me memory by memory. I had taken the flowers out of the spare when I tossed it and added them to the first. Why hadn’t I remembered that in the garage when I so blissfully tossed away the centerpiece of our livingroom?
Scot was so sweet when I told him what I’d done. He said he far preferred the vase of yellow flowers I put there instead. And the next morning when I was replacing some things on the mantel and a beautiful plate from Greece which I have always loved when toppling to the floor, he gathered the pieces, said he thought he could glue it and told me he really loved projects. I live in heaven with this man.

Fantine

Mariah loves the musical theater. Her bedroom is full of artifacts from shows. She loves to fill her bedroom with the music from broadway. It is so much her, and so much a part of many of our family members. But I think her favorite has always been Les Mis, thus what joy it was for her to learn that Robinson is doing Les Mes as their spring show this year. Over the years Epanine has her favorite songs and range, but as she thought about it for the tryouts, she realized that she comes across on stage as mature, not only because she is taller than most of her friends, but there is something in her presence. Thus she decided to try out for Fantine and has been practicing for a very long time, “I Dreamed a Dream.” She has learned to sing it with much power and emotion because she knows the story well. This morning the school posted the sheet for callbacks. There were no callbacks for Fantine. Apparently, from the first tryout, someone stood out so much, that Fantine was already cast. Who that person is will not be revealed until next Friday, Jan 18, so while everybody else is going through another round of tryouts, Mariah is not. So here’s the question—did she get the part of Fantine or did somebody else? Did she just not make call backs? Of course, her friends are speculating wildly and one of them who also tried out for the part is a little miffed because she is sure that this non-call back means that Mariah got it. Mariah is not so sure because many good people tried out. What is so great about this is Mariah’s attitude. She says she will be happy if she is cast as woman number one in the work house. I think one of the reasons that she so often gets cast in lead roles at Robinson is not just that she is really good, though she is, but that fundamentally her heart, her sense of self and worth does not hinge on whether she gets the part or not.

Cleaning the Temple

January 9, 2008

On Tuesday we got up early and went to clean the temple, which is closed for two weeks for maintenance. My work was spraying off the floorboards on the 6th floor, and I remembered an experience we had once at Adam ondi-ahman when we were there with a tour group. As we walked to Tower Hill where the altar once was, we passed a missionary weeding in a garden on a sunny, hot day. Scot said, “He must feel so joyful to be weeding in the garden of the Lord.” As we left some other people passed the same missionary weeding and they said, “Can you believe that somebody would come on a mission and then find themselves weeding?” What a difference in perspective, so I found great joy doing the floorboards and making the temple sparkle. Part way through I had to leave for a Cultural Arts meeting at the Visitors’ Center. We decided to do a display of photos on Gordon B. Hinckley, Temple Builder for the month of April, which will be a great deal of fun and a very great privilege. We have loved taking this pictures all over the world at temple dedications, My life has been marked by these special, amazingly spiritual experiences that has transformed my understanding forever.

BY Hoo, hoo, hoo

Mariah has been accepted to BYU. She read it online and came down to tell us. We shouted for joy, but I have to admit that tears sprang to my eyes. Scot responded the same when he saw the notification online. So this is real. I do not know if she will also be accepted to BYU Idaho or not, and I know that the choice will not be easy for her because she likes the idea of a smaller school, but it brings it home that indeed she will be leaving home in just a few months and the hole she will leave behind is huge. I will clean her bedroom when she leaves—and I will miss the sprawl of projects, shows, books, and creativity that she will take away. For I know clearly, that when a child leaves home, things are never quite the same—and I miss all of my dear ones every day.

Mariah is so unique—humorous, creative and full of integrity. There is something ancient inside of her and well defined. She lives her life from a centered core. She makes me laugh. This week I was supposed to go book club and Thursday night, but she had her homework finished and wanted me to stay home and watch Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn in Charade instead with her—a girl’s night in. As I was folding laundry, she was chanting from the family room “Charade, Charade, Charade.” I thought how really few nights there are left when the two of us will sit down for a movie, and so, I decided that there are many book clubs to come, but not many nights with Mariah.

Christmas Fun

This morning we put Lucas, Janette and Joshua on the plane and officially brought our Christmas season to an end. We couldn't have packed it more fully. We visited Mount Vernon where we loved mingling with memories of George Washington, eating ginger crisps, and actually feeling the snow fall in the new movie about his Christmas crossing of the Delaware. We visited the Library of Congress and, since we saw National Treasure: Book of Secrets on Christmas day, someone suggested we followed it up with the actual tour of all the movie locations. We went to our timeshare in Williamsburg where we especially loved hearing Thomas Jefferson (I believed it was Thomas Jefferson). He was eloquent and stirring and made me want to stand up for freedom. We loved oohing and ahing at the illumination of Governor's Green. This is a nighttime celebration where a fife and drum corps in crisp, red uniforms march out along the green, and torch bearers ignite lights along the road leading to the Governor's palace. We visited the National Botanical gardens where Lucas was in seventh heaven, lingering over every tree and plant and identifying them for the rest of us.

It was wonderful to have Melissa join us for three days and actually get the almond in the rice pudding. Andy asked for books for Christmas and came away with a pile. It is always inspiring to be around Andy. When we weren't seeing fun things, we did fun things like watch The Planet Earth on our new big screen television or one of Mariah's romantic movies from the new A&E collection. We also played a fiercely competitive round of Cranium, Apples to Apples and gorged ourselves on fondue and many other treats. Since we have finished the attic above the garage, we spent a day together hoisting boxes up, and many, many of these belong to the children.

All in all it was a great time, as you may be able to tell from the pictures below, compliments of Dad. Now we look forward to a new year with great excitement for all the good things that lie ahead. We are visiting Eliot and Angie the third week in January, going to the Rexburg Temple dedication the first weekend in February, and leading a Caribbean cruise where we will swim with the stingrays and teach about Book of Mormon geography. Best of all are these new babies coming. It is fun to read Julie's blog and follow the details there.

We are dressed up for the nativity scene on Christmas Eve. Michaela came as a newsie, Melissa as a flower child. Dad came as a shepherd who had been dirtied up watching the sheep.

Christmas morning on Mom and Dad's bed. Some traditions go on forever.

We thought no one got the almond this year in the rice pudding. We guessed everyone all around the circle, but not Melissa because she had been dishing the pudding. We began to talk about how perhaps one of us had accidentally chewed it up. I did say that I thought the almond was a bit small this year and that could have happened. Dad said this had never happened before in all the years he had been doing this tradition. We were about to give up and call the rice pudding almond decimated and gone, when Melissa finally confessed. She had it all along, and she should have had an Academy Award for her acting.

She was delighted to have snookered us like this.

One of the funnest parts about Christmas was coming to know Joshua so well. At first he was frightened of Lucy and Grandpa and Ana, but he soon warmed up to us all. He repeats everything, especially the last word of every sentence. He can say all of our names. He loves to sweep, mop and vacuum the entire house--especially without being asked. We loved every minute together. Lucy became frightened of him!

Mariah loved being an aunt.

Who is this gorgoues colonial family at Williamsburg?

Truman got a new camera for Christmas and took about a thousand pictures in Williamsburg. Andy and Michaela love each other.

Michaela and Mom love each other.

Dad loves Mom, making me the most photographed woman in America.

Need a lift?

A smiling picture of the family in the stocks at Williamsburg.

Now, Dad said, choose your worst face and let's take another picture. Everybody laughed when they saw this picture because I have the same face in both pictures.