December 28

This time I'm going to remember what happened on December 28, three days after Christmas. Unfortunately, I can't remember many years about this date, and I only remember 2014, 2008, and 2007.

2014. President Henry B. Eyring was at church that day, which I didn't expect. Peter Moosman was one of the speakers, and he began by saying, "You are looking at a spiritually sick individual," caused by not reading scriptures or doing other things. He shared an experience saying the prayer at his Christmas dinner, which strengthened his testimony. There was some extra time at the end, so President Eyring addressed us. He told us how he married later, and how his wife's parents didn't really approve of him, but he was very bold in proposing and she accepted. It had started snowing when we were at church. I began driving home, and I think I was listening to my new Nashville Tribute Redeemer CD. I took Eaglewood Drive up to Foxhill, and there were lots of cars coming slowly down the other direction. When I was coming down Raygene in front of my house, my antilock brakes came on. But the snow didn't last super long. My home teachers, Mike Angerbauer and Chad Hogan (substituting for Nathan Loveridge), came over. The conversation turned to my work, and I went and brought out my copy of Mapping Mormonism, so I showed them where my name was in it. I wrote my culminating blog post for the year. We played my new Nightmare Before Christmas Monopoly game; we wanted to do the fast way, but even that was slow, and we had to pause the game for another day. I think my mom picked the Jack Skellington playing piece. This is my journal:
"President Eyring was at our sacrament meeting again this week, and there was extra time, so he told us about how he got married. It started snowing when we were in church, and the anti-lock brakes came on right in front of the house. I spent the afternoon working on my year-in-review blog, but there were breaks for my home teachers (Mike Angerbauer and Chad Hogan, who was subbing for Nathan Loveridge), dinner (chili), and a game night (my Nightmare Before Christmas Monopoly). I shoveled the driveway once."

2012-2013. We were in California both years. I'm sure if I remembered one thing that happened specifically on this day, I would remember a lot, but right now I can't remember anything.

2011. I know I worked that day, but I don't remember anything.

2010. I was in Tennessee visiting my brother's family, the last time I ever visited that state, but I don't remember that day specifically.

2008. It was the day before transfers, and Elder Love was being transferred. We taught a girl who was dating a member of the Ritzville Branch, and she seemed to accept everything we taught, but we thought it was more for her boyfriend's sake. But she didn't live in our mission, although she would be going to school in Pullman. That night we had dinner at a birthday party for John Galbreath in the branch. He had received a Neal A. Maxwell quote book for his birthday, and they had ginger ale. They had a three-year-old daughter who was hilarious and talked about her imaginary friends. She said they slept in her bed, and her dad told her they couldn't sleep in her bed until she was married. She had received a doll named Lucretia for Christmas, and her mom was saying that sounded more like a black name, even though the doll was white, but there was a white Lucrecia in the branch. I journalized as follows:
"I am thirteen [months] today. We taught Sarah, the girlfriend of Andrew Burt, who lives out of the mission. We also said goodbye to a few others for Elder Love. We had dinner with John Galbreath and family. Their daughter Taylor is hilarious and very imaginative, telling us today all about Steve, Johnny, and Jackson."

2007. We visited a less-active member, not knowing how we would be received, but he invited us in immediately and was very friendly; we began regularly visiting him. I think this was the time we drove to the Franklin Park Ward's church building because Elder Chun needed to conduct a baptismal interview. There was a convert there who was enthusiastic about soon leaving on a mission, and we were telling the other elders about our upcoming appointment that we assumed would be a bash session; Elder Chun told Elder Gammon how the wife said she had read the Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrine and Covenants, and the husband said, "How did you get a D&C?" Elder Gammon said we should have corrected him to "Doctrine and Covenants," since he had a thing about not using that abbreviation. That night after our meeting with Kristi Waylin, Elder Chun got lost and we were going down an ice-covered hill and couldn't back up, so some people came to help push him back up, and I felt awkward as I got out of the car after they were already helping. In Spokane they didn't really plow snow, and there were many times we got stuck on icy roads. We went on a road in the Greenbluff Ward to check on some people we had tracted into the previous week. We talked to a new man who said his wife had lots of Mormon family (and I think we later learned she was on our ward list). And I think we took these pictures that night, although I'd have to double check the original photo information to know for sure (I just took these from Facebook):

 We liked this church sign:

I wrote in my journal:
"Today we taught Richard Swinkles, the only member in his family. We are trying to reactivate him possibly to influence his family. Elder Chun had to do some baptismal interviews, and then our potential investigator wasn't home. We met with Christi Waylin, a former investigators [sic] whose boyfriend is a less-active member. They are strengthening their relationship by wanting to come to church. The previous missionaries did an unsatisfactory job. We taught a good lesson but it was very difficult because she has very rambunctious children.
"We then got stuck on a road again by some houses so people helped us push again. We set up a return appointment for a possible investigator who was gone yesterday. Then we talked to a man on that street, and Elder Chun pulled down an enormous icicle."

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.

December 31, 2013-January 1, 2014

Another year is coming to an end, so it's time to remember what happened at last New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

On December 31, we got ready to leave my brother's house after a weeklong visit there. For some reason, Nathaniel rode in the car with us to the airport while David drove. I did the old pretend-my-hand-is-a-spider with him, and he kept smacking my hand when I got close. When we got to the airport, I said, "Goodbye, Qi-en!" While we were waiting to board the plane, I checked my grades for the fall 2013 semester. I saw that I got an A- in Groundwater and a B+ in Field Studies, which was a little disappointing, but a little pleasantly surprising. The rest were A's. My mom told me we would be sitting in row 16. I said "hixteeng," since that was how Nathaniel said it, and that seemed to be his favorite number at that time. My mom caught on to my "hixteeng" reference, and said, "He's so cute." On the plane, I put my phone on airplane mode, but I listened to the songs that were saved on the phone, listening to songs that were popular in 2013, came out in 2013, or were New Year songs. When the flight attendant came by, my dad and I got ginger ale; my dad said he always got it on planes. When we arrived in Salt Lake, Susanne took us home; I entered the house through the garage door, and our cat had made a mess of the basement, so I had to clean it up later. I came up and saw our leftover candy canes, and I was glad that I could still eat them. We looked on my mom's new computer at the pictures from California, and I used an unflattering one for my profile picture.

I turned on my New Year music while we did that. That evening, I turned on all my 2013 music on shuffle. My dad told me he liked the mix, but that may have been because there was a fair amount of religious music. My mom kept laughing at the Jan Terri songs. Then I was surprised when Kelly Clarkson's cover of "Run Run Rudolph" came on, and my dad said, "Is this the singer you and your mother make fun of?" Later I told that to my mom and he said maybe he couldn't tell when people were off pitch. In the evening, my mom and I went to Temple Square because Cherie Call was singing in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We went in and sat down, and lots of people were talking to a man behind us. It was apparent he was a pretty well-known person, and I remember one person criticizing another musician who was Mormon for singing Bruno Mars. I predicted some of the songs Cherie would sing, and I think I got all of them right. I was especially glad she sang her New Year song, "Starting Again, Again." She had live accompaniment, but she just used a minus track on "Marry Me." After we left, my mom wondered who had been sitting behind us. I told her I wondered if it was Jon Schmidt (I don't remember how I came to that conclusion), and my mom said she had heard him say that, so she knew I was right. Rather than  go home and be bored (since my dad probably went to bed), we called my sister to see if we should go visit them and ring in the New Year with them. She agreed to have us come, so we went down to their basement. We might have put on silly party hats. After 2014 arrived, we went upstairs and had sparkling cider, and Nan, Matt, and I cheesily clinked our glasses together "to 2014." (We didn't know that it would be 2014 when Matt would leave them.) Allie showed off her karaoke machine, but I think she was too shy to sing. Susanne gave me some cinnamon rolls that I took home. On our way home, I wanted to see if 99.5 was playing the top 2013 songs yet, but that wouldn't start until the next day. I think they played "Sweater Weather." I liked the golden-lit trees near Susanne's house.

The next morning, January 1 (which technically began the night before), I got up and my dad had eaten a cinnamon roll, which was fine by me. I remember getting on my computer and listening to my New Year and 2013 music again. I journalized as follows:

"New Year's Day, just sitting in my room, waiting for us to leave for our traditional New Year dinner. This is going to be a big year. I'm nervous. I will graduate, and therefore I have to find a job. I thought I would be able to stay at BYU Studies until August, but it turns out I can't. I hope the semester won't be too difficult so that I can spend time looking for jobs."

We drove out to 7200 South to go to Golden Corral, my grandparents' favorite. I think my dad was sick, so he didn't come with us. The radio station 99.5 was playing the top songs from 2013, so I turned that on. I was surprised when Owl City's "Good Time" came on, since that was more of a 2012 song. I wasn't social at dinner and didn't want to talk to many other people. My grandparents wanted to take pictures of everyone there, which got a little awkward. I remember Sue saying she wanted Jesse and Lisa to have kids because she didn't want Chancey to have any more. On our way home, we stopped at Toys 'R' Us to look at their Christmas clearance stuff (in California, we had seen some Rudolph toys, but they didn't have them in Utah). Allie had been promised a bicycle for Christmas, but she didn't want one, so she picked out Legos instead. I was disappointed she didn't want a bike. On our way back to Susanne's house, we got into a conversation about P!nk. Susanne said she loved the song "Just Give Me a Reason," and I said I hated it. And then it came on a minute later. They dropped Matt off and did some things in the house, while I waited in the car and listened to the radio. We went to Maverik to get gas when they announced the "number one song"--Kelly Clarkson's "Catch My Breath," which surprised me. Then we went to Target. I remember looking at the clearance candy, thinking I could have it for just a few more hours (before candy became forbidden again), but I wasn't really hungry for it since I had eaten lots of desserts at Golden Corral.

December 31, 2012-January 1, 2013

As this year comes to an end, I'm going to remember last New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

On New Year's Eve morning, we went to my grandparents' house to return my grandpa's hearing equipment. Then we went to Best Buy to get a few things. I wanted a speaker that could be charged by the computer but didn't go in the USB, but I couldn't find what I was looking for (I didn't exactly know what I was looking for). We looked at vacuums, and I noticed that the signs hanging in the store had both English and Spanish. I was amused that one of the translations was exactly the same, except that they had replaced an ampersand with "y." In the car, my mom's copy of Cherie Call's Gifts came on; I told her to switch the CD after the New Year song, since Christmas was over. I asked if that made me a hypocrite, since I would be listening to some Christmas music that was my 2012 music, and she didn't think so, but she said that she should be able to listen to it because it was a new CD for her in 2012. That day we went to Winegar's grocery store and got lots of unhealthy things because we thought some of my cousins would come over. We got chips, eggnog, New Year cupcakes, gingerbread and eggnog taffy, and gingerbread marshmallows. We also got more. But no one came, so we had an abundance of bad things. I turned on my 2012 music while taking down Christmas and putting up New Year things. My mom was laughing at my Jan Terri music. I finished a memory post while my parents were downstairs; I later joined them. We weren't pleased with any of the options for New Year coverage--what's the point of a tape-delayed New Year?

On New Year's Day, we went to our traditional family dinner at Golden Corral. Afterwards, we went with my aunt Sue to Tai Pan. I got a clearance Christmas tree for $5 and Sue did as well. Then we went to my aunt's house and played Loaded Questions. One of the questions was "What is a headline you don't expect?" and I said, "Ke$ha gets baptized into Mormon church," and when Jesse saw that, he made his, "Ke$ha marries Mark Melville." My mom and I left with Allie, then realized we had forgotten something, so we turned back. We dropped Allie off at her house since she had school the next day. Then we went home and I kept listening to my 2012 music while I disassembled our little Christmas tree. I finished up the last of our eggnog, knowing that the holidays were completely over.

December 27

Well, Christmas will be over this week, so I'm going to remember what happened two days after Christmas.

2012. This day we were going to Six Flags. My dad was feeling sick, so he didn't go with us, but the rest of us--my brother's whole family, my mom, my grandparents, and I--all loaded up in our Suburban. We had to drop David off at their church so he could ride with some ward members who were going with us. The three boys were in the back, and Franklin was playing with my mom's iPod, using a voice recording app. He was saying some rather R-rated things. I was hoping no one else would notice, but my mom did and told him not to say those things. I told him if he kept saying them I would take the iPod away, and he said, "But it's funny!" Shortly after he and Preston were fighting. Preston had been saying things into the iPod just to annoy Franklin, so Franklin bit Preston, and then they began fighting. I leaned back to break up the fight, and I might have taken away the iPod. Ever-happy Baby was content, and he had given me the water bottle he had been drinking from, which didn't have a lid on it. We went over a bump, and water shot out of the water bottle and hit Franklin right in the face. If I had tried to splash him, I couldn't have done a better job. Franklin thinks that people do mean things to him on purpose, and he became furious. I told him I was sorry, but he didn't accept it and kept kicking the back of my seat. He was crying up a tempest. When we got to Six Flags, he didn't even want to be near me, and was mad that he had to change his shirt. We met up with David and the family he was with. I went on a ride with the six-year-old and worried he might have hurt his teeth on the ride, but he didn't. He became quite comfortable with me the rest of the day.

We went to a dolphin show, and I remember remarking that it had been exactly nineteen years since I had been to another dolphin show. The kids enjoyed playing in artificial snow, and I had to keep telling Preston he couldn't throw it. Franklin wasn't as mad at me later in the day. That night, we were in a gift shop while they lit up the Christmas tree outside. Then we left Six Flags and went to Jack in the Box for dinner. I got a pumpkin milkshake, and the kids got their own shakes after dinner. While we were waiting for dinner, Baby was sitting on our table and my grandpa kept giving him sips of different drinks. Baby pointed to my shake, and Grandpa grabbed it to give to Baby, but my mom stopped him because he couldn't have any until after dinner. (It was mine, anyway.) Then we took my grandparents to their hotel. That night, Franklin once again said that I was mean. I told him that I didn't do it on purpose, that I would never do that to him, and my mom said, "Uncle Mark is actually very nice."

2011. I got off work early, so I went with my parents to go see Arthur Christmas in theaters. We met Susanne there, and after the movie, I gave her my new Black Eyed Peas CD, since I had already copied the clean songs. She asked if I wanted money, but I declined. My dad started driving but had his door open. Susanne saw it and when she drove by she was laughing. I think this was the evening my parents invited me to watch a movie with them, but I didn't like the language, so I grabbed headphones and started my first New Year memory post. When their movie was over, I asked my mom if she wanted to hear the song about hair that I owned, since it was playing on my shuffle playlist.

2010.  In the morning we went to a used media store. On our way there, David was playing "I'm thinking of an animal" with Preston and Franklin. Preston's animals included a chigger and a lungfish. When it was Franklin's turn, he said, "I'm thinking of a animal," and Preston said, "Is it an alligator?" Franklin said, "Uh huh." We laughed, and David said that was how Franklin played it. When we got to the store, Franklin wanted to stay with me, more than he wanted to stay with my mom. We looked in the used books section, and Franklin liked all the Spiderman books. I was amused by a book I found called something like "I Can Shine My Light for Jesus on Halloween." My mom wanted to get movies for the kids--for Franklin she got a DVD of various cartoons because it had Batman on it. Preston wanted to get a movie called The Tangerine Bear, but David thought he should get something else. Later, when he found out he had gotten The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars, he wished he hadn't said anything.

2009. Various family members started coming to our house to go to my homecoming talk. We were listening to Cherie Call's Beneath These Stars album. Eventually we went to church, and I of course sat on the stand. Our opening hymn was "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," and even though Christmas was over, I was actually pleased because I was able to use a line in one of my talks. I saw my old companion Elder Love sitting in the congregation, and when I began talking about Ritzville, I saw him squirm with delight. After sacrament meeting I went to Sunday School, since it seemed weird to me to celebrate a church accomplishment by skipping church. David came back to church and got me out of Sunday School and said, "Let's go." I asked him why, and he got this condescending smile on his face and said, "Because if you don't, it means you didn't learn one thing on your mission." He told me I was being incredibly rude. I was so taken aback by his gruffness and his meanness that there was no way I was going to let him win the argument. If he had been nicer, I might have considered going home, but with the way he was acting, there was no way I was going to. I went back into Sunday School, and it made me a little uncomfortable when people would call me Mark, since my former companion was sitting right next to me, and on my mission I didn't like saying my name. For priesthood opening exercises, we sang "Ring Out, Wild Bells," and at the end Elder Love said, "That's an interesting song," and I said, "I love that song," and Christian Ulmer also said, "I love that song." I came home and talked a little with Elder Love, but I felt I needed to talk to my visiting family members. He left and I talked with some family members, who didn't stay long. That might have been the night that after everyone left, I picked up Franklin and spun him around. Shortly after, he threw up, and I felt really bad that I contributed to him throwing up. Susanne cleaned it up, and David thanked her for cleaning up after his kid.

2008. It was transfer call day, and we were always jumpy on those days. Other missionaries kept calling Elder Love, and whenever we heard the phone ring, we wondered if it would be transfer calls. We had dinner with a family whose last name started with K, and I think they showed us a Wall-E toy they got for Christmas. Elder Love got a phone call while we were there, and he told us that he had talked to someone who said he was being transferred, but he didn't know where. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was somewhat uneventful. Our highlights were the contacts with the Clarks, who want us to return, and a visit with the Andruses. All day we anticipated our transfer calls, and didn't get them until about 9:20. Elder Love will stay in the zone, but not in the district. I will have Elder Wilson, whom I met in Northland Zone. It will be the first time my companion is younger than I."

2007. We had interviews with the mission president that day. The sisters gave us a ride, and we brought our boxes of cherry cordials. One of them fell on the concrete outside the church door, but Elder Chun picked it up and put it back in the box. Then we had to tell President Clark not to eat from that box. Interviews were really long. We watched a pioneer video, but I couldn't stay awake for most of it. President Clark asked me to come in with Elder Chun. That was the only time I ever went in with my companion. Elder Chun talked about how the members kept signing up for dinner appointments on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, when we were only supposed to eat with members if they had an investigator present on those days. President Clark was very forceful with Elder Chun that we weren't supposed to eat with members on those days. Then it was time for my individual interview. I told him how I felt bad for Elder Chun because I was always doing lots of stupid things. At the end of the interview, President said to me, "Elder Melville, will you check that your zipper is up? Will you just check?" It wasn't up, and I told him that showed how I was always doing stupid things. That afternoon we visited Sister Stubbs and she asked about evolution, and she asked if we were created in the image of God, does that mean God is in the image of a fish or a monkey? I explained that the Church had no position on evolution. When we left, there was this creepy guy walking around, and Elder Chun said hi to him, and he said, "I'm going to Salt Lake City to pick up some girls." He said, "Do you know what I do for a living? I'm a male prostitute." He said some pretty foul things. I think he had some broken teeth. After he left, Elder Chun thought it was so funny that he called Elder Johnson and told him about it. That night we went tracting, and I think it was the first time I did the door approach. Elder Chun always liked to shake people's hands, and one guy wouldn't shake because he said he didn't want to get the flu. The last people were named Marsh. They were very nice and said they would like to talk to us. The wife said she had read the Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price and she had a Doctrine and Covenants, to which the husband said, "How did you get a D&C?" We worried they would be wolves in sheep's clothing just wanting to bash with us (which turned out to be mostly correct). This is my journal entry for the day:
"We had interviews today. It was extremely embarrassing when President Clark pointed out that my zipper was down.

"We met with Sister Stubbs who had some irrelevant questions that came from viewing the History Channel. I was able to explain the Church's stance on evolution.

"On our way home we met a self-proclaimed male prostitute. Elder Chun's comment (to me) was that the work must be going pretty slowly for him, since he did not try to keep himself attractive. He had the language of his profession and the coherency of a souse.

"We went tracting tonight. The people were more "We appreciate what you're doing but we're not interested" and quicker to close the door. Our last house was very nice and wanted us to return. They had talked with the missionaries before and seemed eager to talk again. I worry they might be wolves in sheep's clothing, but we shall see.

"We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a less-active teenage girl named Erica"

2005. This might have been the day that I asked Allie if she wanted to watch a show, and I brought down my new DVD with Rudolph's Shiny New Year. She wanted to watch it, but she wanted to make sure we weren't watching my Munsters DVD, and I was impressed she new it was a DVD, since it wasn't packaged like a regular DVD.

2000. This might have been the day that my mom and I went to a Target near my aunt's house and bought this Christmas decoration that had a globe, and when you touched little metal points on the globe with a metal stylus, the globe would give a Christmas greeting from that country. Then we went to my aunt's house, and they gave me a Christmas gift that was Snoopy's doghouse with bone-shaped candy inside.

1999. This might have been the day that we went to the Thompsons' house, and I asked my mom to get Happy New Year, Charlie Brown from Media Play. She did, and I watched it at their house. I think they also bought M&Ms that had MM written on them, since it was almost 2000. This also might have been the time that they had chips and salsa, and Sue bit a chip, then put it in the dip. Jesse said, "You double dipped," and she said, "No, I didn't double dip, because I only dipped once." I think Jesse told me the synopsis of Rudolph's Shiny New Year, since I had never seen it.

1993. I think this was the day we went to Sea World. It also might have been the day that we stopped at a rest stop for a breakfast of little cereal boxes, and Chancey was singing "Must Be Santa," but that might have been the day before. When we showed up at Sea World, I was surprised they still had Christmas decorations up, since the holiday was over. One of the first things we did was go to a dolphin show. They told me I would get wet if I sat up front, so I sat with my grandparents further back, where we wouldn't get wet. I was wearing a blue Sea World visor. Afterwards, everyone laughed about how wet they had gotten, and I was a little sad I didn't sit up close. At another point, we walked through a tunnel with fish all around, and I saw a hammerhead shark. Later that day we saw a walrus show, although I don't remember much about it, except that I liked  the fire. We saw Shamu that night, and we sat further away and still got a little wet. I think David sat close and got soaked. Then we went into a gift shop and I wanted to get a turtle stamp.

Things Nathaniel says

The final installment of this series focuses on my youngest nephew, Nathaniel Qi-en "Baby" Melville. (I'm not sure if "Qi-en" is the proper spelling, since I've actually never seen it written, but I'm going to use it until someone tells me it's another spelling. It's pronounced "chee-UN.")

The first time I met Baby was in December 2010, but he was less than a year old and he was sick, so he didn't do any talking.

Then I didn't get to see him again for another year. On December 29, 2011, we brought David's family home from the airport and were sitting in our living room. I held out my arms, and we were all pleasantly surprised when Baby came running over to me and let me pick him up and put him on my lap. He started "talking" to me. Only it wasn't really talking. He just went "Wehhhh." It was really cute. He pointed to the decorative ornament lights on the fireplace that changed colors, and went, "Wehhh." Whereas Preston spoke his own language when he was a toddler and it was obvious he knew what he was saying, it seemed to me that Nathaniel was talking just for the sake of talking--he didn't actually know what he was saying. The next day we went to the natural history museum at the U. I held him, and he kept saying "Wehhh" throughout the museum. First he pointed to dinosaur skulls, so I thought he was "talking" about the dinosaurs. But then later he pointed to pictures of Utah archaeology, pictures that weren't particularly interesting, so I don't think he was really trying to say anything.

He did say more than just "wehhh." He incessantly watched a YouTube video with puppets singing an "Uh huh" song, and he would sing along with it:

(When I recorded this, my batteries died before he finished, so I barely missed him singing the whole song.)

He also picked up Allie's name, and he would say "goggy" for "doggy." He overextended "goggy" to refer to our cat, and if he saw the cat, he would say, "Uh oh, goggy!" He would sometimes say other names on demand, but he would say them without initial consonants. Lack of consonants has been Baby's trademark, even up to today.

I saw him again in June 2012. They were stopping at our house before continuing on to California. On that visit, he came up the stairs and saw my cousin Peter and said, "You inky!" Peter said, "No, you're stinky!" That was the first time I heard him say "stinky" as "inky." He would say that over and over to Peter (and the next day he even said it to me). That night he was mad at his mom for something and hissed at her. We were talking about the scars on my knee, and Baby came up and pointed to my "owie"--but I think he was actually pointing to a dry spot that's always there and not the scar from my fall. He kept asking for a haircut, since everyone else was getting haircuts.

Then in August of last year, I was able to go out and visit them. He still said "You inky" all the time. Once he said it during the sacrament at church. We all had to stifle our laughter and be glad that no one else could understand what he was saying.

It took him some time to say my name that trip. Ya-ping told me one day that she heard him saying my name in his sleep. Then a day or so later, he was saying "Uncle Mark" to Peter. Peter asked him why he was saying that to him and not to me. (I don't think he was calling Peter by my name; he was just saying it for some reason.)

When Franklin would have temper tantrums, he would say "Ge-ge not nice!" (Ge-ge is his word for Franklin--it means "older brother." It's pronounced like "guh guh.")

He also liked to pretend to be a dog and bark. Sometimes when he would play dog, I would meow. So then he took up meowing. It was adorable, but unfortunately I don't have any footage of it.

You may also remember my video of him and Franklin playing slides. He liked to do that, and he would say "slide" as "ide." Once he wanted me to slide down him, so he put himself in slide position and said "my ide." (I pretended to slide down him, but I actually didn't have any contact with him at all. Fortunately, that satisfied him.)

We went out again for Christmas 2012. He no longer said "You inky," but he did start counting. On Christmas Eve, I was able to talk to him on the phone before we got there. He started counting and telling me the alphabet. After we got there, we were driving in the car, and he asked for my attention so he could count. He said "seven" more like "sibben," and I think he also said "eleven" like "sibben." If I remember correctly, he would confuse seven and eleven, so once he got to eleven, he would start over again at eight.

The day after Christmas, we were preparing to go pick up my grandparents from the airport. I couldn't decide whether I was going with. But then Baby was talking to me, and I couldn't understand what he was saying. My mom told me he was saying, "Will you sit by me?" So I did go with them after all.

He also learned to say "What about me?" After Preston's confirmation after his baptism, Franklin tried to get in the confirmation chair. We told Franklin he would have to wait a few years. Baby said, "What about me?" There were other times he said this expression, as well.

One day Franklin was having a fit and saying, "I want to play the meat boy game!" So Baby matter-of-factly told us, "Ge-ge want to play the meat boy game"--but with fewer consonants.

If you asked him what his name was, he would say, "Ee-uh." "Is your name Nathaniel?" "No, Ee-uh." "Is your name Baby?" "No, Ee-uh." 

In January, I was able to talk to him on the phone. He was initially talking to my mom, and he was talking and talking. She needed to go do other things, so (at my request) she asked him if he wanted to talk to me. He said "yesh" and talked to me. He is hard to understand in person, but he's even harder to understand on the phone. I think the only thing I understood in fifteen or so minutes of talking was "Ah-bay go up" ("Airplane goes up"). For a while, I think he mentioned his "ah-bay" every time he was on the phone; just two or three months ago I heard a message he left on our answering machine that said, "I wanna show you my ah-bay," followed by a sad "they're not home."

As I mentioned earlier, Baby leaves off a lot of consonants, especially at the beginning of words. Even after going to speech classes, he still leaves them off. We were able to visit just this past month, and he still leaves them off. He kept asking for Gatorade and called it "Atorade." Except that he might not have said the t and the d (or the r).

It wasn't until this most recent visit that I realized the way Baby distinguishes his brothers. Franklin is "Ge-ge" and Preston is "Brother," even though he could call either of them by either name. He does know their real names (I asked him), but he doesn't say them most of the time.

On our visit to Kings Canyon National Park, I discovered several interesting things Baby says. We were telling him how he needed to be careful. If we would tell him he was going to fall down, he would say, "I won't!" Once I said to him "Be careful," and he said "I woe!" I thought he was saying "I won't" because he was expecting me to tell him not to fall down. However, I later figured out that "I woe" is his way of saying "I will"--he doesn't have the "ill" sound down. That makes it very confusing. If you say "I won't" naturally, you may notice that you don't really say the n and the t. You nasalize the vowel, and the t is more of a glottal stop. When you factor that in with the fact that Baby has a hard time with consonants anyway, it means that "I won't" and "I will" sound almost exactly the same when he says them.

Sometimes if he was climbing on something and we wanted to help him, he would say, "I know how to get down." He said that often; I would say it was his catch phrase for this visit. Once he said a variation on this--he picked up a piece of granite and said, "I know how to hold it!"

He says "shoes" as "hoo." He still says "stinky" as "inky," but he doesn't go around saying "You inky" all the time.

On the Fourth of July we went to go see some fireworks. We put him in his carseat in the back of the Suburban. He kept saying something, but we couldn't understand it. Then he started crying, which meant we really couldn't understand what he was saying. David eventually figured out he was upset that no one was sitting in the back by him.

When Ya-ping is reproving the boys, she will say their whole names, as in "Preston Melville." Once she said, "Baby Melville." Baby said, "I not Moevoe!" That was one of the things that helped me realize that he says "will" as "woe," since he say the "ville" in Melville as "voe."

That led me to have fun conversations with him. He understands more about his names now than he did in December. He might even say the first consonant in Qi-en now.
"Is your name Nathaniel?" (Nods)
"Is your name Qi-en?" (Nods)
"Is your name Baby?" (Nods)
"Is your name Melville?" (Shakes his head)

At our hotel near Disneyland, we went to the swimming pool. He was shivering the whole time, but when we asked if he wanted to get out, he didn't want to. Sometimes he was shivering so much that he was even harder to understand than usual. I asked him what the names of his family members were, and he was able to tell me all of them--"Wanklin," "Dabid," "A-bing." I can't remember how he said "Preston."

After the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland, he said, "I want to do that again!"--even though I think he was a little scared of it, but evidently less scared than Franklin. (He was, however, more scared of Pirates of the Caribbean.)

As with all the other kids, I know I will remember more things that he says after I post this.

January 2

I'm going to remember as much as I can about January 2.

2012. We all piled in the car to go to the children's museum at the Gateway. I thought Baby was adorable in his hat, but he was unhappy for some reason.

In the underground parking lot, David had to carry both Franklin and Nathaniel because they wouldn't let anyone else take them. David and my dad and I almost walked past the children's museum; my mom had to stop us before we crossed the street. I didn't want my flash to go off in the museum, so I ended up with a bunch of blurry pictures. The first place for the kids had balls that went through tubes all over the place. There was another kid named Preston there; we kept hearing his family saying his name. David took a picture of me and told me that in the picture my hair looked like his friend Michael Bishop's. Then we moved on in the museum. Franklin had fun building a foam building.

There was a water station with little smocks so that the kids wouldn't get wet. I thought Baby was adorable in his, and my mom agreed. I stayed with him and I heard another parent tell his daughter she needed to be nice to the little boy. Allie and Preston played in the supermarket area. Then we went upstairs, where there was a stop-motion video maker. Then we all left and realized that Preston wasn't with us, so I went back up the stairs and got him. Then we went to Chuck-a-Rama, where we were having our family New Year's dinner. We were sitting in the front, waiting for people for forever. Preston started crying because he was hungry and because he does stuff like that, so Ya-ping took him in. A little later Joey asked me where Preston was. I asked him if he was still installing windows. At dinner, my cousin's husband Cameron asked Jesse if he liked Katy Perry; Jesse said he preferred Ke$ha. Before we left, we were asking Baby to say everyone's names, and he did. The Chuck-a-Rama employees were cleaning up; it seemed to me they were hinting at us to leave, because some members of the family were too chatty and we'd been there a long time. Then we went home and I took down the lights that I had made say "12" on a fence outside.

2011. I think I drove home from my singles ward and I saw a house that already had Valentine's Day decorations up--hearts in the window and red and purple giant lollipops in the yard (they have lollipops for all sorts of holidays). That night I watched a Church movie--I think Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration--with my mom. Then my mom went to bad and was sad because I would be going back to Provo the next morning.

2010. In the morning, my brother-in-law Matt updated my sister's laptop to have Windows so that I could use it at school. I might have called my roommates--James didn't answer his phone, so I left a message. (James never returned my call because he hates everyone.) Then I called Jeff Anderson and he said I didn't need to take any pots and pans or dishes or anything. Then my parents and I loaded my stuff in the Suburban. Matt wished me good luck at the Y. Then we drove down to Provo. We parked in the Stratford Court parking lot. I took my bicycle down to the parking garage just as another girl was, and I started talking to her. We had to break into my apartment through the window. We took all my stuff up, and then we went out shopping. We ate dinner at Burger King, and Allie called me. I wasn't quite sure why she did. Then we went to Deseret Book to see if they had Cherie Call's new album Grace; they didn't. We looked at large spiral-bound hymnbooks. We wondered at the price differences between the red one and the green one. The cashier told us that the red one was made by Deseret Book and the green one was by the Church. She gave my mom a discount on the red one. Then we went to Kmart. We looked at nail clippers and my mom was debating which one to get; I asked why we couldn't get both. We bought some pillows, some milk, some ground beef, and some grape jelly. Then they dropped me off at my apartment. I was all alone. I connected to the internet at the desk in my bedroom and got on Facebook before I put away my stuff. Colin Barber, whose contract I had bought, stopped by with a girl. I wasn't accustomed to a college environment, so I didn't invite them to sit down, so we just stood. Colin liked the smiley faces on the Joe Boxer pillow. I went over to 306 and knocked on the door. I told them I was new in the ward and asked where church was; they told me I could just walk up with them, but that I shouldn't knock on the door--I should just walk in.

2009. I think this was the day we were having dinner with the Bowens, and they had invited some less-actives we had found to come to dinner. We went to dinner and Brother Bowen went to pick up the guests. He came back and said that no one answered, even though it seemed that there might have been someone home. Then he realized he had left his phone at that apartment complex (which had once been a hotel). Since that was a poor complex, he worried someone had stolen it. He left and came back. He had found his phone, and I think he said that someone at the complex had said that the people who were supposed to come to dinner were home. So we just had dinner with the Bowens. They asked typical questions. Elder Wilson told them that his father is an auctioneer. I think we complimented them for having a lot of cats but not smelling like it.

2006. We went to Golden Corral for dinner. As we were leaving, my uncle's wife Nancy was talking to us and Allie, and it came up that Allie really liked princesses. Then we went home and I had to buckle down and finish The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. 

2003. In the morning, my carpool, Ryan Jones and his mom, came to pick me up. Nadine said, "Happy New Year!" I didn't know if she was saying that of her own accord, or if she was saying it because my projector was on and you could still kind of see that it said "Happy New Year."

2001. In my sixth-grade class, we would get in a circle and go around and say things. On this day (I think--maybe it was a different day), we were talking about what we did on New Year's. I told them that my family had come over and we played with confetti over the stairs. Then I said, "So we have confetti all over our house." Then someone said, "You haven't cleaned it up?" I kind of felt embarrassed, because it made us seem like we were slobs.


Hmm. I remembered less about January 2 than I thought I would.

Related posts:
A year of holiday memories
Auld Lang Syne

Boxing Day

This time, I'm going to remember as many details about the day after Christmas as I can.

2011. I think I had Taylor Swift's Speak Now album on in the living room while we were taking down Christmas decorations. My dad said he wanted to keep the ornament lights that change color up, but I planned to take them down. My mom reproved me for wanting to take down the one thing my dad said he liked. Ya-ping called, so my mom turned the music off.

2010. I woke up to my mom telling Franklin to wake me up. He came and got on me and warmed up to me super fast. David said it was because I looked enough like my cousins. Church was cancelled that day in Tennessee because it snowed the day before. It was time for the boys to open the presents that we brought for them. Preston opened the toy that had the plastic pins that you can push in and make imprints, and he said, "I always wanted one of these!" My mom told me that I made a good choice in getting it for him. Franklin correctly identified my gift to him as a stingray. David asked the boys if they wanted to keep their Christmas tree up or take it down, and Preston said to keep it up. A little later, Franklin was playing with Preston's pin toy. One of the plastic pins was bent, so I pulled it out because it was interfering with some of the other pins. Franklin took the pin and was trying to put it back in. Preston came over and saw what he was doing. He said, completely distressed, "Franklin, no!" I told him that I had taken it out because it was bent. He started crying. I told him that he couldn't even notice that it was out, but he pointed to the hole and kept crying. David saved the day when he put the pin back in. A little later, David needed to go to his work (to feed fish?). He asked if I wanted to come with. I asked if the boys were going, but since they weren't, I didn't go.

2009. All ten of us in the family went to Chuck-A-Rama for lunch. After that, my mom took me to Deseret Book so I could pick a Cherie Call CD. I couldn't find her new album, Grace, so I picked Beneath These Stars instead. Then we drove home and I put in the CD. My mom told me that the CD was more upbeat than she expected of Cherie Call, but I thought it was less upbeat than some of her other stuff. I think I played a velcro ball game with Preston. Then I had to work on my homecoming talk and I stopped and put a status on Facebook: "I'm currently writing my homecoming talk for tomorrow but I get bored and distracted easily even if it's something interesting. (The curses of being a monotonous individual!)" It was my subtle way of letting everyone know I was giving my talk, but I don't think anyone came who didn't already know about it.

2008. We drove back to Ritzville that morning, and when we got there, one of the neighbors came out and gave us the Christmas packages that had been left on our doorstep. If I had my journal, I could look and better see what happened, but I don't right now.

2007. I think we had interviews with the mission president that day. The sisters gave us a ride, and we brought our boxes of cherry cordials. One of them fell on the concrete outside the church door, but Elder Chun picked it up and put it back in the box. Then we had to tell President Clark not to eat from that box. Interviews were really long. We watched a pioneer video, but I couldn't stay awake for most of it. President Clark asked me to come in with Elder Chun. That was the only time I ever went in with my companion. Elder Chun talked about how the members kept signing up for dinner appointments on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, when we were only supposed to eat with members if they had an investigator present on those days. President Clark was very forceful with Elder Chun that we weren't supposed to eat with members on those days. Then it was time for my individual interview. I told him how I felt bad for Elder Chun because I was always doing lots of stupid things. At the end of the interview, President said to me, "Elder Melville, will you check that your zipper is up? Will you just check?" It wasn't up, and I told him that showed how I was always doing stupid things.

2006. I think I drove to my counseling appointment while listening to the Beatles LOVE album that I got for Christmas. I liked "I Am the Walrus." 

2005. I remember cleaning the church. It was the day for the young men to clean the church, but I was the only young man who showed up. I remembering vacuuming a classroom while thinking about the "Have a Happy" song from Rudolph's Shiny New Year. 

2004. We drove to church and the radio was playing a Christmas song. I was a little annoyed, because Christmas was over. In Sunday School, Sister Olsen had a bunch of candy for us. One was a chocolate bar with almonds in it. Sister Lance said, "Oh, like a Mr. Goodbar?" When she was eating some, she said, "I love Mr. Goodbars," and I thought silently about how Mr. Goodbars have peanuts, not almonds. After Sunday School, Sister Olsen asked me about what I got for Christmas. I told her about all the Wario Game Boy games I got. Then for priesthood opening exercises, we sang "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," and I was surprised Christian Ulmer picked that instead of "Ring Out Wild Bells."

2003. It had snowed a lot overnight, and our power was out. We might have tried to go sledding, but I can't remember. My mom had heated some water on a portable propane stove so we could have hot chocolate. As it got dark, my mom got into bed. I remember sitting in her bed and making an impromptu New-Year-themed story with shadows in a flashlight. David said something about a New Year tree from The Nightmare Before Christmas. I told him that there were only seven holiday trees in the movie, and there wasn't a New Year tree. He started making up that there was another grove of trees with other holidays, like Veterans Day--he said there was scary stuff in that tree. Then I remember being in the living room, doing weird exercises to try to keep warm. Ya-ping's friend Hui-Ru said "Frankfurt" in Chinese because she wanted me to hold baby Allie. Eventually the power came back on and I was really excited. David told me I shouldn't turn everything on until we were sure the power was going to stay on. When we were sure, I went downstairs and watched Happy New Year, Charlie Brown.

2000. That morning we went and saw the Jim Carrey Grinch movie in the theater near Kmart (that isn't there anymore). We were just a little late, so we missed the trailers and some of the opening credits. Then I went home but my parents were out doing errands. I watched the original How the Grinch Stole Christmas! special while following along in the book. I was surprised at all the differences, such as "red thread" in the book and "black thread" in the special.

1996. I wonder if this was the time we were in Fillmore and How the Grinch Stole Christmas! was on TV. At the part where Max's tail gets in the sewing machine, Sarena said, "Doesn't that just make you hurt?"

1993. I remember waking up in my grandparents' motor home as we drove into California, seeing all the palm trees. I think we picked a campsite and a nearby RV had Christmas decorations up. That night we went to a beach and there were little slugs all over the sand. At some point in the trip we went to a nearby gift shop and they had a decoration that was a melted snowman--a container of water with a little hat and other snowman accessories floating in it--but I don't remember if we went there the day after Christmas or if it was only on a different day. 

Merry Christmas!

Related post: 
 Yuletide by the Fireside, and Joyful Memories There