Death

I am not sure I am used to having a boy yet. Everything is about death.

Tim playing house with his Sisters.

Maggie: "Let's pretend that you are coming home from work!"

Tim: "Okay, I have just killed ten thousand ninjas."

Maggie: "Let's pretend you loved me like mom and dad love each other"

Tim: "Okay, I destroyed the dinosaur outside the window, I blew him up. He was going to eat you."

Maggie: "Do you want to play with the children?"

Tim: "Sure, I'll take them with me, we have to take out the evil bad villain guys with bows and arrows"

Maggie: "Would you like some dinner?"

Tim: "After I wrestle the bear with a knife!"


So, I asked him to watch Susanna for a moment. He walked over...

"I will protect you from the invading armies by killing them all."

"Tim, I don't want you to corrupt your little sisters mind, she is only seven months old!"

"I was talking to myself. Not to her."

oi vey

Rorschach

Whenever Maggie wants to describe how something looks, it is always the same.

"That kinda looks like a peanut."

Pancakes, clouds, toes, her little sister, the lamp, her brother's butt, everything looks like a peanut. What in the world should we think of that?

Promise Kept, Advil Taken

The year was 1996, the pinnacle of my Mountain Biking skill. Our young men church group went up to one of the ski resorts in July to ride the lifts 4000 feet up, and then bike down three or four times.

That day I gained the nickname "endo" for setting a record seven times flying over the handlebars. I put my crank 1/2 into my right calf, I bled from almost every extremity. I bruised every extremity. I rolled down 15 feet of a 60% grade after hitting a sandbar at 20 miles per hour. I realized that a no-shock bike does not go over eight inch rock walls. I scared my leaders because my legs were more red than tan. I ruined a pair of shorts.

A few things changed mentally that day:

First, I realized I did not like Superman, because imitating him resulted in pain. From then on, I supported batman's awesomeness and psychologically intriguing rogues gallery.

Second, I realized I did not find the adrenaline rush of pain addictive like some.

Third, I swore off mountain biking. Why leave a perfectly good road?


Three years ago while home-teaching one of my good friends (isn't it funny how home-teachees become the best friends?) he challenged me to come out with him on the trails around our home. The area we live in is actually quite a mountain biking hotbed with courses and single-track trails in abundance. I promised I would, eventually.

Today I kept that promise.

Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.

My friend let me borrow a nice trek mountain bike, and we went up into the hills.

It took me less than ten minutes to reestablish my nickname, and nearly kill myself.

Sadly, the story does not involve any real challenge. He took me to the mountain bike equivalent of a bunny hill wood A-frame. Three feet up, three feet down. Nothing fancy. I gained the necessary speed, leaned forward, and noticed my tire moving to the side, no, make that off the side.

The bike went completely vertical with the rear tail following over the top. I ducked to roll out of it like one would road biking. I came down on a triangular shaped rock which could have made my wife a millionaire, but just ruined an expensive set of glasses and my helmet.



My body collided with the surrounding timber and rocks, puncturing the skin on my leg and giving me all sorts of road rashes. I crunched, and completely ruined my shorts. Feeling quite cheeky, I stood up; upset mostly because my friend took his 7 year old on these tracks and did not apparently have any problems. My pride and other nether-regions were significantly injured.



I successfully crashed three more times, bruising every (again) extremity of my body before the day was done. A bike with 4 inches of travel does not win against an 18 inch rock, and I lose against the crossbar. every. single. time.



Promise fulfilled. That won't happen again.



At least for a few weeks...

Once there was upon a time

Ask children this question for entertainment: "What is your favorite fairy tale?"

Ami:
"You mean a book? It is Eeyore Has A happy tail I Love To See The Temple."

How does it go?
"Once there was upon a time, there was an Eeyore upon a tree, who was an Igor, they rhyme because they both have a geegore. What is Depesche Mode?"

Tim:
"White Fang. I like it so far, all the things I have read about it, all of it."

What page are you on?

"Chapter five and the number of page 47"


Maggie:
"The Tale of Despereaux, I really like that Dis-pex was very brave about a lot of brave things."

Steroids? Approved!

For about six months, Ami has looked forward to this week's doctor appointment, knowing that once she turned 3, she would get to eat vitamins like her older siblings.

Little did we know they would be to her what spinach is to Popeye.

Yesterday, upon returning home, she informed me that, "because I had a vitamin, now I can pedal a bike." So she took me outside and demonstrated.

Then, last evening we went camping with some friends, and she informed me that, "because I eat my vitamins, I am smarter too!"

She insists that she is stronger. smarter, [better-looking?] and happier because she "had vitamins and not shots from the doctor."

Who knew?

More Wedding Pictures

Dressed for Symbolism.

Last night about 1am we put the final touches into another wedding dress. This dress was different than the others we have made due to the hand stitching and beading required for the intended effect. It turned out good, but I do not think we will be doing any more dresses with extensive handiwork. I am far more comfortable with the machine. I also successfully incorporated significant structural boning work in the bodice.

Here it is:



The Bride picked out the basic shape and location of the bead work, and I recruited David to design the specifics of the bead work so they would be appropriately symbolic in pattern and design.

We originally were going to use roses as the stitching, but it did not flow as well with the pattern and design, plus, we could not get them to look as nice as we would have liked.

David decided that the cherry blossom would be a fitting match. It is far more unique than the traditional olive, fig leaves, lillies, or orchid patterns.

In various parts of Chinese culture, the cherry blossom is the symbol of love, good fortune, and affection.

Intricate and gorgeous, the cherry blossom is only seen for a short duration of the year. Therefore this dress is designed to remind those who see it that the eternal marriage is the pinnacle point in life and perhaps its most beautiful moment. It blooms in spring, which, in the seasons of life, is where the Bride and Groom are finishing. It also serves as a subtle reminder that life is short compared to the eternal existence of the soul, so decisions should be made with an eternal perspective.



The drape beading and location of the stitch work also was designed to be symbolic. It starts in the bodice, mirroring a protective breastplate to symbolize strength.



It then moves to the back into an eternal weave to symbolize the length of the marriage, and finally spread to an open curtain to symbolize eternal posterity. (No uncle Gary, that is not the same as eternal posterior, the bride works out thank you).

Jurassic Family Home Evening

This event can be described simply by the two questions Melissa asked me following the event.

"Soooo, how do you think that went?"

"Do you think it is a good idea to have the children laughing at death?"

On Monday, after our regular family home evening finished, I thought it would be a good idea to address another challenge in the family. Lately the children have been choosing to become "afraid" of a lot of different things. Things like heat, rain, ants, sweating, trying new sports, watching their sister for two minutes, etc. "Afraid" has been the cop-out buzz word. In an effort to help them clarify their emotions, I thought it would be good to help them understand the difference between discomfort, dislike and fear.

I also wanted to help the children recognize the difference between pretend and reality in the media.

So, I TIVOed Jurassic Park last weekend.

Some of you are wondering what I was thinking at this point. You are not alone.

Ami, Tim, Maggie and I gathered in the theater for a little movie time to understand fear. I told the children we were going to watch people get eaten by dinosaurs, and that it was not real.

Yee-haw.

During the opening scene with the rapter, Ami asked, "Why is he bouncing up and down?" Tim stared with a mix of glee and absolute terror. Maggie sat whimpering, I laughed.

So, I figured we needed to lighten the mood a bit. After the movie introduced the main characters, we pause it to play a childhood favorite with my dad, "Guess who is going to die next!"

Maggie bet on the computer programmer, Tim on the scientists. After each death we would place our bets on the next dino snack.

Maggie laugh-cried as she moved further and further into my ribcage as we watched from this part on.

Tim caught the attitude and idea quite well, unfortunately he combined his superhero voice with a maniacal laugh so he sounded like an evil scientist as he cheered for the dinosaurs to eat the rest of them.

Ami lost interest and played with Legos.

We concluded with a discussion of recognizing the difference between fear and the things we do not like. We talked about how being afraid comes from not understanding something or danger, and then discussed how to address those feelings through thought, dialogue, scriptures and prayer.

Interestingly, neither Maggie or Tim have been "afraid" of anything this week since then.

Roar!

To make up for it I took them to "How to train your dragon." I enjoyed my penance.