No Pain, No Gain

First, Look at that hair, it blends into the carpet.

Oliver officially started crawling yesterday. Today he has recieved his first battle wound. He fell face first on the corner of the little black cable box. Let's take a closer look at his bruised face
Here he is getting into more trouble
Already heading for the cupboard under the sink
A close up
Trying not to smile
Dazed & Confused
Another close-up
But in the end, he'll live (as mom would say)

Gird up your loins - Reunion Tidbits

I wish I could be clever and creative here, but I am sorely lacking in that department. In fact, when Trevor asked if I had read his "Open Defiance" blog and had read Nick's comment. And wasn't it a really funny comment? I asked him about my comment, and he said that I was there for moral support. How lame is that.......... Anyway, your Dad and I put on a great reunion. It went off without a hitch and everyone participated. We picked up my Mom and Dad in Honeyville on the way. We found a place to put all their stuff in my truck and the wheelchair we piled on top. Dad was in his jeep. We had people guess how many hot tamales, starbursts, dum dums, taffy, Sees candies and laffy taffy. Then we had pictures of Utah towns taped on the walls and they had to guess them. We also had a table where we had put colored T-shirts for the kids to decorate - 25 of them. That night, we had a "Honor Mom and Dad" night where all the families did a little remembrance for them. After a dessert of bannana splits with 14 different kinds of ice cream, we played Nicholas Family Bingo. We used gourmet jelly beans for the markers. That was a hit. The prizes were Zions Bank stuff and drug rep stuff that we had been collecting. Fun!!! We slept in the corner of the lodge with Mom and Dad and Nancy and Chaetun and Xadun. I am glad it was only one nignt. After breakfast we had field manuevers with my sisiters as captains. Each team had to perform 10 skills. Dart blowing, paper airplane toss, jump rope, croquet racae, Sudoku, Crossword puzzle, jigsaw puzzle, frisbee throw thru hula hoop, jacks, and twinkie eating. It was hilarious. It was my job to check their mouths to make sure they had swallowed. ICK. It was a lot of fun. I am sure you would have been there if you could. At least I am hopeful you would.

Emerging From the Proverbial Social Closet (with Machine Guns Afire)

Okay, so by now you probably know that we have moved to a different ward and have been in our current ward for a few months. Fortunately for me, but unfortunately for Kim, we have maintained relative anonymity despite Kim's best efforts at socialization. That was until the brouhaha that erupted yesterday during Priesthood and continued after the meeting formally closed. However, before I describe the verbal jousting (on the Sabbath, no less), I must preface it with a description of my mental state just having finished Sunday School. I noticed at the beginning of Sunday School that the instructor had carried a book to the lectern that I immediately recognized. What was interesting was that this book concerns the history of polygamy from Joseph Smith to the current fundamentalists in Colorado City --- nothing whatsoever to do with the Northern/Southern Kingdom split during King Rehoboam's reign. She used the polygamy book for an extremely odd tangential commentary regarding the politics of pre-Manifesto Mormonism. Essentially George Q. Cannon was shopping the Mormon-bloc vote to both the Republicans and Democrats trying to acquire a favorable position for acquiring Utah statehood. Anyway, that's another topic but somehow she forced it into the lesson. After her lesson, I asked her if she liked the book. She said that it made her mad (I have to follow-up that comment) and that her husband, the first counselor, was the one who likes to read that stuff. Fortunately, her husband was nearby and we had a long talk. In fact, they want us to come over for dinner sometime. That should leave the score Nick: 1 and Kim: 0 for getting a dinner invitation in the new ward.

Unfortunately I was left in a conversational state for Priesthood meeting as opposed to my usual leave-me-alone-I'm-sitting-in-the-back-corner state. The lesson concerned the Word of Wisdom (WoW) from the Gospel Principles manual. We have many new converts so we don't use the Wilford Woodruff manual. It so happens, as it typically does when discussing the WoW, that the instructor, who was the EQP, used the WoW to illustrate the incredible prophetic foresight of Joseph Smith. The implicit argument is that Joseph Smith must be a valid prophet because nobody could have predicted the harmful effects of those items proscribed by the WoW. I normally would have let this go but, remember my current state, I said something like "Actually, those items that are outlined in the Word of Wisdom were all part of the contemporary medical debate. Much of this is covered in Paul H. Peterson's BYU master's thesis, for those of you that might be interested. For example, D & C 89 discusses 'hot drinks' which are currently interpreted as being coffee and tea. However, these two items were not exhaustive as the contemporary debate concerned the actual temperature of the beverage. Assuming that he formulated this revelation free from any environmental context, which would demonstrate incredible prophetic abilities, does not accord with the evidence." After I said that, some guy from the back corner said, somewhat sardonically, "Well, did they have conspiring men back then?" I thought to myself, "What are you talking about? I said absolutely nothing about 'conspiring men'." Anyway, more about him later. I understand that what I said sounds terribly pretentious which is why I usually refrain from saying anything at all. After the class, I approached the EQP and said that I hope I didn't sound too contrarian, which wasn't my intent but rather to correct an assumption all too often repeated when discussing the Word of Wisdom. That's when Br. "Conspiring Men" approached me. I realize now that I should have kept quiet since discussions with individuals that aren't familiar with the history are fruitless. He thought I was attacking Joseph Smith. I conceded that while D&C 89 is inspired (I never said otherwise), the typical arguments proposed in church concerning the WoW are historically naive. Fortunately, Aiden's running through the chapel bailed me out of the conversation. I'm sure I'll get cornered in two weeks when we go again. At least I'll be out of the running for a future teacher position.

Addendum: I forgot to mention that I was also asked to say the opening prayer. When the second counselor asked me and I agreed, Kim turned to me when he left and warned "You better say more than one phrase. I want at least one 'We thank thee...' and one 'We ask thee...'" Don't worry --- I obliged, albeit minimally.

Boogie Boarding

Last week we went to Chorpus Christi. It is only 2 hours away. We went to a beach that was at a state park. There was hardly anyone there and we were able to drive our car right up to the beach. The water was super warm and nice. We all enjoyed it very much.

Open Defiance

I guess it must be my turn to save the blogger from “tustizone” extinction. Granted, our family has never really been a huge magnet for soccer games (except, of course, for the tickets that dad will get for the Real Salt Lake v. Real Madrid game. I have complete trust in you, dad.), but I believe when it really counts, we have a tendency to be well-informed of the sporting events. So with that I will say...

I was in open defiance today. This Sunday, I was caught in a predicament. Should I go to church, which starts at 1:30 or stay home to watch the world cup soccer game between Italy and France which started at 12:00 mst? Well, after a total thought process of 5 seconds, I decided to stay home from at least Priesthood (which is first) meeting to watch the game. I was extremely happy at the fact though, that the game not only went into overtime but also penalty kicks. J/K (no, but seriously). So I not only missed priesthood, but half of Sunday school. Of course, walking into church, I notice we weren’t the only ones to decided to stay home, so I felt a little better (not that I felt any worse for having stayed home); and for those who did go to church, it was very obvious that we were the envy of the ward. I know the pads must be a little disappointed in me, so let me just say that in priesthood they spoke on writing in ones journal (which is about as exciting as not) and in Sunday school, which I missed the half of, they spoke on tithing, of which I paid right after sacrament. I also consider this as making even all the times the bishopric made us stay after church 5-15 minutes every single Sunday, due to their own soapbox speeches, or their inability to tell the 5 other people in line for testimonies that they can’t give theirs due to time constraints. So everything was made just fine today, except of course the resulting win in the final game of the world cup.

First, I must say that I am a bit upset that Italy won. It goes against everything that history has stated as truth. The allies are supposed to win and not those of the Axis powers, and if anyone had won, it should have been Germany, who had the guts to go up against real nations during the second world war II, as opposed to Mussolini and his forces against the Ethiopian nation. But then again, France was down so fast in the war that it is pointless to see them as an ally. Also, as far as a gospel standpoint goes, Germany should have taken it all, especially against Italy. Germany, who has more church members than Italy, should have won it hands down. I guess that goes to show the lack of faith on the German side. Of course, if results prove the faith of members, Real Salt Lake should be playing in some of the European leagues, and the united states should have at least made it past the group play.

Oh well, I just cant wait until World Cup 2010 in South Africa. I sure hope there is more Sunday play.