December 30

Today is December 30, so I'm going to remember the December 30s of the past.

2013. It was our last full day in California, and I was wearing my red-orange pants. While the other adults had gone someplace, Ya-ping wanted me to accompany the boys to the park at their apartment complex. They showed me how to get there, and I supervised them playing, particularly Nathaniel.

Suddenly, there was a hubbub around one of the park's garbage cans, as one of the janitors was freaking out. There was a rat in the trash can, and it was trying to jump out. My nephews wanted me to hold them so they could see it, and some of the other people worried about me doing so, since the rat was trying to jump out, and it got close on occasion. I took a picture on my phone, and then another janitor showed up, and I was able to show him the picture, because I don't know if he believed the story.

He made fun of the first janitor for being afraid. Eventually they put a stick in the garbage, and the rat was able to climb out, and it ran into the bushes. I think Preston was trying to coax it out of the bushes. Then we had to make a stop in the apartment again, and Preston was trying to come up with an excuse not to go back. He said he was scared of the rat running loose, but I knew that was an excuse, because he sure wasn't afraid of it when we were there. When we went back, Nathaniel brought his little bike. He left it on the playground while he went playing, and then Preston said, "Uh oh," because we noticed a woman pushing a little girl on it. Of course, Qi-en didn't like that--"I don't want her riding it." I said, "Then go tell her," and he said, "No, I want you to," and I thought it was more of the job of the adult, so I took him and I went up and said, "Can he ride on it?" She got off, but then Preston told me that he could tell the woman was mad because she was talking angrily with a friend (they weren't speaking English). It was weird enough to ride someone else's bike, but to be mad when you get kicked off--that's excessively odd. Although Franklin had been good for most of our visit, I think he had a screaming fit that afternoon. That evening we were going to go out to eat, and I think Franklin wanted to go to McDonald's, but we were going to a Chinese buffet. Franklin was upset about that and felt entitled to his way. I remember talking about some of the events of December 30, 2010, concerning Franklin, while we were at dinner. When we got back to the apartment, Preston wanted to sleep in the living room with my parents--and since he was given permission to do so, the other boys wanted to too. They then began to get every blanket and stuffed animal they could find and pile it on the couch.
David told them that there wasn't enough room for all of them to sleep on the couch with all their stuff. Preston was willing to sleep on the floor, but something triggered Franklin that he got possessed, all because his dad said there wasn't room for all of them on the couch. He had a screaming, crying fit. David told him to go to his room and that he had five minutes to calm down, or else he wouldn't be able to sleep in the living room. He screamed and cried on his bed for a long time. Eventually David went in to talk to him, and said, "You've been crying a long time." Franklin was coming up with some excuse: "When you were five years old..." David had to say, "If being five years old means that you're too young not to have a fit, then being five years old means that you're too young to sleep in the living room. Do you understand?" He did end up letting Franklin go back to the living room, and Ya-ping said to him, "You're too nice." In the meantime, I was trying to find my phone's charger, and David found every one in his house, but none of them were mine. It turned out that I hadn't brought mine, so I don't know I had been charging it while I was there.

2012. My parents and I were driving home from California with my grandparents. It was very early in the morning, so I spent a lot of the time sleeping. Donner Pass was snowy, but I slept through much of it. At one point, my mom asked if it would disrupt Grandpa's hearing if they listened to music; Grandma said it didn't matter. At one point they turned on the weird CD my dad had bought my mom, "The Best of the 80s." I didn't like that choice for a Sunday, so I listened to churchy music on my new MP3 player, including the Lower Lights and Jan Terri's "Follow Jesus." We made a stop at a Nevada gas station/casino, and we had to make a stop in Winnemucca to get gas. We also had to stop at the hotel we had stayed at on our way there; Grandpa said, "Why are we stopping here?" and it was because I had left my shoes at the hotel. When he saw that, he realized why I had worn "red tennis shoes" (they were actually Vans) at Preston's baptism they day before. I think our last stop was in Nevada not far from the Utah border, and I had snacked on enough snacks that I didn't need to get to get food. We dropped off my grandparents and then drove to our snowy, icy driveway. As we were bringing stuff in, we discovered that Grandpa had left his hearing aid stuff in our car. That really disappointed my mom, because it was late and she didn't want to have to drive out again. She called Grandma and asked if it was OK if she returned it the next day; it was OK. I stayed up late writing my year-in-review post.

2011. This time, the visit with my nephews took place in Utah. We all got in the Suburban and drove to the Utah Museum of Natural History. Ya-ping had some gummy bears she was sharing with the boys, and I had one too. I carried Nathaniel through much of the museum. He kept pointing to dinosaur skulls and saying, "Wehh, wehh." I thought he liked the skulls, but later he did the same thing with pictures of archaeological finds. Those surely could not have interested him, so I think he was "talking" just for the sake of talking. We picked up pizza on our way home for dinner. Once we got home, I went running; it seems like it was for 53 minutes. I was astonished to see a "Welcome Home" sign for a missionary (it was up a few days early); the dates of his mission were 2010 to 2012, and I was weirded out that someone who left after I came home was coming home. I got home and reported on my running; Peter was at our house, and he said that running 53 minutes sounded horrible. That night, Nathaniel had fun creating a bridge between the couch and the table.

2010. Once again visiting my nephews, this time in Nashville. We went to an Indian restaurant for dinner; it was kind of a buffet style. They had some spicy food; I remember my mom saying, "If you grew up eating this, can you imagine how bland American food would be?" Franklin was not quite three. They fed him some spicy stuff, and he would convulse because it was so hot, but then he would beg for more. My mom said, "Why does he do that?" Preston said, "Look at Nathaniel!" because he was staring at a baby girl.

2008. Elder Love was being transferred out of Ritzville and Davenport. We drove out of Davenport in the morning, and in Washington, they don't believe in clearing the roads. A car had turned into the middle turning lane and was coming in traffic but apparently didn't look in his blind spot and hit the car in front of us. They pulled off on the side and we kept driving. Elder Love went to his new area in Spokane's South Hill. We went into the apartment, and Elder Love said, "Who's our district leader?" The other elders told him it was him; he was stunned. I can't remember where I met Elder Wilson, but then we drove back to Davenport. We got gas at the Indian-run gas station in Airway Heights. Elder Wilson got a hot dog, so I thereby learned he wasn't a health nut, although he was fairly healthy. I drove slow because it was all snowpacked. When we got back to the Herrons' house, the couple we stayed with, I told Sister Herron about the wreck we had seen. This is my journal for the day:
"This morning almost to Airway Heights we saw a wreck. A car was turning on to the highway from the median. He didn't look and their sides hit. It looked like they were dancing with the way they moved across the snow-packed road.
"The roads in Spokane were crazy. Snow was piled up in the center of one way streets, and lanes were narrow with all the snow. I was nervous to have to drive. Elder Love asked who the district leader was in his new area, and he was shocked when they said, "You." President hadn't told him he would be district leader.
"We traveled safely to Davenport, with a nice long procession behind my slow driving. We went to the Stackhouses and the Adamses to introduce Elder Wilson."

2007. When we taught Sunday School, this may have been the time I brought up my reading of Job. When we taught the youth, Elder Chun said, "What is a missionary's favorite thing?" The youth all guessed things, including cookies, but the answer was "referrals." This is my journal for the day:
"Today Debbie and the kids came to church, and the bishop of the Northpointe ward committed everyone to bring one person into the Church in 2008.*
"Then Kristy Whalen came to the Greenbluff ward, which was exciting. We had to teach Gospel Essentials, and then we had to teach the youth. Those both went well.
"*That is, invite one person to hear a lesson."

2006. I was invited to a YSA activity, since I was 18. We met at the Jones home. I was wearing pink socks because I was very OCD about what clothes I wore around New Year's. We took off our shoes, so my socks were very obvious, but no one said anything. We went down to the Joneses' basement to play Scene It. Not having seen many movies, I wasn't very good at it. But there was one sequence that involved a picture that gradually faded in and you had to guess the movie. I knew it was It's a Wonderful Life immediately. In another part of the game, I knew Inherit the Wind when no one else did, because I had watched it in Mr. Glover's AP US History class; I told everyone that it was airing on channel 11 soon. We went to Clark Planetarium to see a laser music show. They played Christmas music while showing lasers and animated clips. They played overplayed songs like "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." I thought it was cheesy, and it was worse because Christmas was over.