I'm going to remember as many details as I can about the Presidents' Days of my life.
2012. I was putting up St. Patrick's Day lights at home and listening to music from my laptop. My mom told me that I messed up the grammar on my Facebook status: "The false prophet Stephen Duncan and I met in East Wenatchee..." I pointed out that it was right. My mom thought that "Stephen Duncan" was an appositive for "false prophet," but it wasn't. Jessica Penix from my mission liked the status. (I'm not friends with her anymore--she unfriended me back in May when I sent her a message asking her to change her pornographic profile picture.) My aunt came over and my computer was playing a Charlie Brown song; my aunt asked, "What are we listening to?" and I told her "Vince Guaraldi." Then I drove back to Provo. The radio played a Jewel song, and then the next song kept saying, "L U V Madonna." I thought, "Jewel and Madonna? Is this a 90s day or something?" But then they said it was Madonna featuring Nicki Minaj, so I knew it was a new song.
2011. I think this was the time I went grocery shopping with my mom and she bought me a bunch of canned goods for recipes she has that consist of canned products.
2010. I wore my new St. Patrick's Day shirt. In the morning, I
was complaining to my mom that I couldn't get the songs I downloaded the
night before onto my computer, but I was able to figure it out. I would
have brought out St. Patrick's Day decorations, and I took a few
shamrock window clings to take back to Provo. I went to bed when I
realized that I didn't have a parking permit on my car, since I traded
cars, but I thought it would be OK overnight and I'd move it the next
day. (I turned out to be wrong.) [This post was taken from my last one.]
2009. Our district went to Kohl's for P-day because there were supposed to be some good sales. I bought a white-and-green-striped tie for St. Patrick's Day. I looked at the St. Patrick's Day t-shirts but I didn't care to pay the price to buy them. Elder Canova admired the Snoopy "Party Like a Rockstar" shirt. We looked at a shelf with clearance stuff on it; the perverted Elder Stafford talked about the "man thong." I found an orange beanie. I thought it would be good to have, since we frequently had to walk along unlit roads with no sidewalks at night. Then we did our grocery shopping. That year, M&Ms made green candies for Valentine's Day (stupid idea), but since no one liked that idea, there was plenty of clearance candy, so I bought a bag. Then we went to the Days', where Elder Lestarge and Elder Kitchen lived, and played the typical missionary game Bang! Elder Dunn liked the M&Ms. While we were waiting for a ride back to our house, I put on my new hat, and Elder Stafford commented on it. When we got home, I looked in the mirror, and realized how ridiculous my orange hat looked. It looked like a bathing cap. Elder Betenson said that he wasn't going to say anything, but that he agreed it looked terrible. He said that his previous companion, Elder Torrance, had cut up a hat and used it as a neck warmer. I mostly cared about the orange for the visibility, so I cut it up. But he said it still looked dumb, so I threw it away. Then we went and tried to visit a Sister Locarni, who lived close to us. We found out she was an active member, but her husband wasn't a member. We learned that Brother Wilhelm, the ward mission leader, visited them, which was a scary thought, since he was notorious for teaching false doctrine. After 9:00, Elder Wilson called me and said, "I have sad news," and told me that Brother Martin from the Davenport Branch had died unexpectedly. They announced it at stake conference. I think I might have called Elder Love and relayed the info. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was my first P-day in the district. It was a hassle with all the people; we had Elder Stafford in the trunk. I bought an orange hat to be more visible at night, but it looked ridiculous, so I threw it away. I also bought a green tie (and green M&Ms) for St. Patrick's Day. We also played Bang.
"Then this evening we met Sister Locarni, who is active, but her husband is not a member. We tried to see others, but they weren't home, and we came back.
"Elder Wilson called me and told me Brother Martin from the Davenport branch died unexpectedly."
2003. I remember I had a dream that I owned a tie that said "Presidents' Day" on it. That day I was changing one of our porch lights to green for St. Patrick's Day. I put the green lightbulb in my pocket when I went outside, and while I was moving the ladder the lightbulb fell out of my pocket and crashed on the ground. I asked my mom if she would buy me a new one, and she was annoyed because she had just bought that one.
1997. I remember wanting to show my mom the picture I drew of Mt. Rushmore for Presidents' Day. But maybe that was 1996.
I don't know why I don't remember much about Presidents' Day.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Friday, February 15, 2013
February 15
I'm going to remember what I can about the day after Valentine's Day. But I'm not going to remember 2013, because that's today!
2012. My class notes indicate that this was the day my editing class met in Special Collections in the library. I went down to Special Collections, but I walked right by our class. I had to turn around and go into the room where our class was meeting. We all spread out in our seats, but they told us we all needed to sit toward the front. They showed us ancient writings: a Cuneiform tablet, handwritten monastery Bibles with pages of animal skins (and the monks would still use pages with holes in them), and an eighteenth-century book with a picture on the edges of the pages. That was really cool; one way it was one picture, and the other way it was the other. That night I wrote a blog post about lemits.
2011. I suspect that I would have removed my Valentine's Day music from my playlist, and then to kick-off my newly un-Valentined playlist, I started off my listening session with John Mayer's "St. Patrick's Day." Apparently this was the night I went running on campus, and I was on East Campus Drive. There were some people on the sidewalk, so I ran on the grass to get out of the way. I tripped and fell, and all those people saw me.
2010. I wore my new St. Patrick's Day shirt. In the morning, I was complaining to my mom that I couldn't get the songs I downloaded the night before onto my computer, but I was able to figure it out. I would have brought out St. Patrick's Day decorations, and I took a few shamrock window clings to take back to Provo. I went to bed when I realized that I didn't have a parking permit on my car, since I traded cars, but I thought it would be OK overnight and I'd move it the next day. (I turned out to be wrong.)
2009. It was my first Sunday in the Hayden Lake 4th Ward. I think we had to help pass the sacrament. Sister James, who played the organ and was an eccentric lady, was wearing a small wire Valentine garland in her hair. There was a friendly nonmember at church. After sacrament meeting, he went off to the Gospel Doctrine class. We went and found him, and Elder Betenson said to him, "There's a class for nonmembers" (which I thought was a tactless thing to say), and this guy said, "I'm good." (I later tracted into him and found out he was excommunicated.) We taught Elders Quorum, and Elder Betenson did most of the talking, partly because I don't talk too much and partly because he likes to show how much he knows. I brought up a scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants directed to someone (I can't remember who), and Elder Betenson chimed in that that guy helped fund the Book of Mormon. After church the Elders Quorum President said I needed to talk more (but he said it nicely). I think we probably talked to Elder Kitchen and Elder Lestarge. A man in one of the other wards in the building came up to me and introduced himself. He noticed that my name is Melville, and he said he was a bishop in Fillmore. I told him my dad is from there, but he didn't recognize the name Rick Melville. But then I told him that my grandpa was Boyd, and he knew him. He asked what my grandma's name was; when I said "Judy," he said, "That's right." I told her that she had died a few years earlier, and he said he had heard that. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today at church a nonmember showed up and after sacrament meeting he snuck to Gospel Doctrine, so we went to grab him, but he firmly said, 'I'm good.' We had to teach Elders Quorum, and Elder Betenson dominated the lesson. I have my good days and my bad days about talking, and today was a bad one. We had dinner with the Woods, and nothing else too significant happened, except a Tim Shirtz (sp) of another ward was a bishop in Fillmore about twelve years ago, and talked about how Grandpa Boyd knew all about lumber."
2008. I remember Brother Welsh, with whom we lived, came home from the store with a lot of sale Valentine candy. Some of that included red, pink, and white Kissables, which they don't make anymore.
2003. We drove home from Fillmore, since we had been there for my cousin's wedding. On our drive home, we hit a thick patch of fog. I was eating all the leftover Valentine candy my mom got from her school. I think this was the day we went to a bookstore in Salt Lake because Jules Feiffer, who illustrated The Phantom Tollbooth, was signing books. I took my copy of The Phantom Tollbooth to have him sign. We were driving in Salt Lake and I saw someone have a Mardi Gras flag up, and I was surprised anyone actually celebrated that in Utah. We helped Susanne pack up some stuff from her house, since she was moving out. My mom's friend Jackie and her husband Sam were helping. It started raining, and Sam went and stood under a carport or something, saying that even chickens know when to get out of the rain. That night my mom and my siblings and I went to a King's Singers concert. While we were walking on our way there, David was singing songs he'd created on his mission, like, "Raindrops keep falling on my head, I guess that means my eyes will soon be turning red, acid rain." I was embarrassed, so I rammed into him to try to get him to stop. He asked why I was doing that, and I said, "'Cause that's what I do." My mom thought that was funny and started laughing loudly and asked Susanne if she heard what I said. That made me even more embarrassed. At the concert, the King's Singers said that the previous night had been Valentine's Day, so there had been a lot of physical contact with the concert goers--but that it was the same story that night. We got some CDs during intermission; I think I wanted to get a Beatles one (and to this day I've hardly listened to it). My mom bought one called Kid Stuff since Susanne was having a baby. When we were leaving teh concert and walking back to our car, we overheard some people behind us talking about the snobby people in black (i.e. everyone coming from the concert). Then we dropped Susanne off at her house for one of the last nights she would be sleeping there.
2002. After school I put up St. Patrick's Day decorations. That night the Andersons picked me up and took me to "the Bubble" to go swimming with them. There was a house in Bountiful that had green lights up already for St. Patrick's Day. I saw Erica Lovell (who was my age) at the Bubble.
Related posts:
Remember Every Detail, Volume 6: Valentine's Day
A Year of Holiday Memories
2012. My class notes indicate that this was the day my editing class met in Special Collections in the library. I went down to Special Collections, but I walked right by our class. I had to turn around and go into the room where our class was meeting. We all spread out in our seats, but they told us we all needed to sit toward the front. They showed us ancient writings: a Cuneiform tablet, handwritten monastery Bibles with pages of animal skins (and the monks would still use pages with holes in them), and an eighteenth-century book with a picture on the edges of the pages. That was really cool; one way it was one picture, and the other way it was the other. That night I wrote a blog post about lemits.
2011. I suspect that I would have removed my Valentine's Day music from my playlist, and then to kick-off my newly un-Valentined playlist, I started off my listening session with John Mayer's "St. Patrick's Day." Apparently this was the night I went running on campus, and I was on East Campus Drive. There were some people on the sidewalk, so I ran on the grass to get out of the way. I tripped and fell, and all those people saw me.
2010. I wore my new St. Patrick's Day shirt. In the morning, I was complaining to my mom that I couldn't get the songs I downloaded the night before onto my computer, but I was able to figure it out. I would have brought out St. Patrick's Day decorations, and I took a few shamrock window clings to take back to Provo. I went to bed when I realized that I didn't have a parking permit on my car, since I traded cars, but I thought it would be OK overnight and I'd move it the next day. (I turned out to be wrong.)
2009. It was my first Sunday in the Hayden Lake 4th Ward. I think we had to help pass the sacrament. Sister James, who played the organ and was an eccentric lady, was wearing a small wire Valentine garland in her hair. There was a friendly nonmember at church. After sacrament meeting, he went off to the Gospel Doctrine class. We went and found him, and Elder Betenson said to him, "There's a class for nonmembers" (which I thought was a tactless thing to say), and this guy said, "I'm good." (I later tracted into him and found out he was excommunicated.) We taught Elders Quorum, and Elder Betenson did most of the talking, partly because I don't talk too much and partly because he likes to show how much he knows. I brought up a scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants directed to someone (I can't remember who), and Elder Betenson chimed in that that guy helped fund the Book of Mormon. After church the Elders Quorum President said I needed to talk more (but he said it nicely). I think we probably talked to Elder Kitchen and Elder Lestarge. A man in one of the other wards in the building came up to me and introduced himself. He noticed that my name is Melville, and he said he was a bishop in Fillmore. I told him my dad is from there, but he didn't recognize the name Rick Melville. But then I told him that my grandpa was Boyd, and he knew him. He asked what my grandma's name was; when I said "Judy," he said, "That's right." I told her that she had died a few years earlier, and he said he had heard that. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today at church a nonmember showed up and after sacrament meeting he snuck to Gospel Doctrine, so we went to grab him, but he firmly said, 'I'm good.' We had to teach Elders Quorum, and Elder Betenson dominated the lesson. I have my good days and my bad days about talking, and today was a bad one. We had dinner with the Woods, and nothing else too significant happened, except a Tim Shirtz (sp) of another ward was a bishop in Fillmore about twelve years ago, and talked about how Grandpa Boyd knew all about lumber."
2008. I remember Brother Welsh, with whom we lived, came home from the store with a lot of sale Valentine candy. Some of that included red, pink, and white Kissables, which they don't make anymore.
2003. We drove home from Fillmore, since we had been there for my cousin's wedding. On our drive home, we hit a thick patch of fog. I was eating all the leftover Valentine candy my mom got from her school. I think this was the day we went to a bookstore in Salt Lake because Jules Feiffer, who illustrated The Phantom Tollbooth, was signing books. I took my copy of The Phantom Tollbooth to have him sign. We were driving in Salt Lake and I saw someone have a Mardi Gras flag up, and I was surprised anyone actually celebrated that in Utah. We helped Susanne pack up some stuff from her house, since she was moving out. My mom's friend Jackie and her husband Sam were helping. It started raining, and Sam went and stood under a carport or something, saying that even chickens know when to get out of the rain. That night my mom and my siblings and I went to a King's Singers concert. While we were walking on our way there, David was singing songs he'd created on his mission, like, "Raindrops keep falling on my head, I guess that means my eyes will soon be turning red, acid rain." I was embarrassed, so I rammed into him to try to get him to stop. He asked why I was doing that, and I said, "'Cause that's what I do." My mom thought that was funny and started laughing loudly and asked Susanne if she heard what I said. That made me even more embarrassed. At the concert, the King's Singers said that the previous night had been Valentine's Day, so there had been a lot of physical contact with the concert goers--but that it was the same story that night. We got some CDs during intermission; I think I wanted to get a Beatles one (and to this day I've hardly listened to it). My mom bought one called Kid Stuff since Susanne was having a baby. When we were leaving teh concert and walking back to our car, we overheard some people behind us talking about the snobby people in black (i.e. everyone coming from the concert). Then we dropped Susanne off at her house for one of the last nights she would be sleeping there.
2002. After school I put up St. Patrick's Day decorations. That night the Andersons picked me up and took me to "the Bubble" to go swimming with them. There was a house in Bountiful that had green lights up already for St. Patrick's Day. I saw Erica Lovell (who was my age) at the Bubble.
Related posts:
Remember Every Detail, Volume 6: Valentine's Day
A Year of Holiday Memories
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Lincoln's Birthday
I'm going to remember as many details as I can about February 12, two days before Valentine's Day.
2012. That night I walked to a fireside that had Hartman Rector, an emeritus Seventy. I walked into the church building with some either people, but there was another event going on, and we almost went to the wrong event. I was behind Zach Zimmerman and his friends, and I was going to sit with them, but there wasn't room at their bench in the front of the chapel. I walked to the back of the chapel, and Kristen Jensen invited me to sit by her. I decided not to because there wasn't much room on the bench, but she scooted over and let me sit there. Brother Rector was pretty funny; he talked about "Tom Monson." He talked about encouraging new converts to go to the temple. Someone had told him that converts couldn't go to the temple for a year after their baptism, but he said that they could go when they were twelve, referring to baptisms. After the fireside, they had cheesecake for refreshments. I was only able to eat the cherry cheesecake, and I remember having a discussion with Chase Elwood about it. I had two pieces of it. I remember talking to Emily Farris, but she had to go because her ride was leaving. Then I went home. When I walked inside, my roommate Ammon was watching the Grammys. A blue-haired woman was singing, and I asked, "Is that Katy Perry?" It was. Then a little later I was around when they were announcing the best country album. I was glad Lady Antebellum won for Own the Night. I told Ammon that I wasn't too big on country, but that I really liked that album. He said he knew the "Just a Kiss" single. I told Ammon that I was sad Christina Perri wasn't nominated for anything. I didn't watch the Grammys, but I did look up the results, and I was amazed Adele won every award she was up for. After the Grammys, Ammon was playing Katy Perry's new song, "Part of Me," from YouTube. I asked my room roommate if he minded if I watched something. He didn't mind, and I watched the Peanuts Motion Comics Valentine clip; he looked back at my computer screen at the scene in which Lucy insists Linus draws the mouth on the picture he drew of her.
2011. I went grocery shopping, and I wanted to buy stuff to make cookies for my home teachers. I texted my roommate Zach if I should do sugar cookies or M&M cookies, but he didn't respond in time, so I just went and bought stuff for M&M cookies. That ended up being what he suggested anyway. I had to work that night, setting up a room in the Smith Fieldhouse for church the next day.
2010. I think this was the day I was walking to my calculus class in the morning and I met Brian Clancy, a guy in my class. We started talking and he said that he had forgotten the orange juice he was going to take to his dance class. I think he said that he expected that he was going to get called on a Spanish-speaking mission, since he spoke Spanish. But I told him that I had taken four years of Spanish, two years of French, and one year of ASL, and got called English speaking. Since I was temporarily without a car, my mom came down and picked me up for the weekend. I brought some CDs to listen to in the car, Cherie Call's Grace and the Vince Guaraldi and the Lost Cues from the Charlie Brown Television Specials CDs.When we got home, I wanted to look at my Peanuts music book, but we didn't know where it was. They asked Allie if she knew where it was; she had taken it in the car. Susanne said, "Of course my daughter would have it; it has names in it!" That night I went with my parents to a Temple Square concert, since I had to attend concerts for my Music 101 class. It was in the Assembly Hall and it was a showcase of music that had been submitted to the Church. They had an institute choir that was pretty good, but the girl playing the bass (or maybe another instrument) wasn't very good. A children's choir sang the children's songs; the guy in charge said it was "the best part." The kids were just a stake choir, and we were impressed with how good they were. There was a song about tithing, and there was an extra verse to "My Heavenly Father Loves Me." It wasn't well attended, which made me sad.
2009. Elder Betenson and I were out walking when Elder Wilson called me. It was slightly windy, and I could barely hear him on the phone. I said, "I can't hear you because of the wind," so then Elder Betenson said we could stop so that I could hear better. He told me that Sister Andrus, the former member who was married to the High Priests Group Leader in Ritzville, agreed to take the lessons. That night we went to our meeting with the bishopric and they gave us a new ward list. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today we did our sacred planning, which was very interesting. At this point I'm observing to figure out how I can help Elder Betenson.
"Our appointment today totally dogged us so we did some tracting and follow-ups. We got a new ward list with twenty-six names that weren't there in April, so we have a lot of good following up to do.
"And Elder Wilson called and made me sad to have left, because Sister Andrus has agreed to take the lessons."
2008. I think this was the day that I was with Elder Rand (since our companions were sick) and we were driving down a hill when the brakes made a really terrible noise. We ended up going to a car repair place to get the brakes fixed. While we were waiting, we went to the Mexican restaurant that was nearby, where we had gone on Christmas Eve. It seems like someone might have also given us a dinner that had heart-shaped chocolates in it.
2006. I think for some reason my mom and Allie didn't go to church with us, or didn't go the whole time--it had something to do with my mom's friend Jackie. I remember remembering Allie eating a Valentine cookie from nursery the year before, and I realized that Allie wouldn't have another Valentine's Day in nursery, and it made me sad. I'm not sure why this picture was taken, but it was:
2005. My brother and his wife and baby had to move in after their apartment flooded. So we hurriedly packed all my stuff out of my bedroom and put it in the smaller one so that they could have the bigger bedroom.
2001. I think this was the day I sprained my wrist. We had these activities where we all got in lines and did some activity, and then we had to rotate after each activity. I was at the front and I was rotating to the back, but I didn't want to hold everyone up, so I ran. I slipped and hurt my right wrist. It hurt all day. After school, I told my mom, and she wondered why I didn't call home. I said it didn't hurt that bad. We went to InstaCare. They took an x-ray, but they couldn't tell whether it was broken or not. I hoped that it was broken, because that would mean I continued a pattern of having a broken bone in even-numbered grades: kindergarten, 2nd grade, 4th grade, and then 6th grade. (It turned out not being broken.)
2000. We went to my cousins' house that day and we went shopping at Macey's, where my mom bought colored Nilla wafers for the mini cheesecakes she was making the next day. I think this was the time that afterward, Jesse and I were playing at the Super Nintendo, and Wayne asked where our moms were. We said we thought they were out doing more shopping. He said grumpily, "This is bull****," and Jesse said, "Daddy said a bad word!" Wayne didn't seem to care.
1999. For our Valentine's Day party, we were playing spelling baseball, where if you spell it right, you get to move bases. While I was in line, I lost a tooth. That night I watched a Valentine-themed episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch while eating my candy, including a red and white Lifesaver. I showed David the Bart Simpson valentine I got from Tory Jackson. It said "No school today" inside a circle with a cross through it. When my mom saw it, she pointed out that it should really say "School today" inside that circle, since it was being crossed out.
1998. I would have filled out my valentines for the class party the next day.
1996. My mom packed a Little Debbie heart-shaped chocolate cake in my lunch, and I tried to bite it into the shape of a top hat in honor of Lincoln's birthday.
2012. That night I walked to a fireside that had Hartman Rector, an emeritus Seventy. I walked into the church building with some either people, but there was another event going on, and we almost went to the wrong event. I was behind Zach Zimmerman and his friends, and I was going to sit with them, but there wasn't room at their bench in the front of the chapel. I walked to the back of the chapel, and Kristen Jensen invited me to sit by her. I decided not to because there wasn't much room on the bench, but she scooted over and let me sit there. Brother Rector was pretty funny; he talked about "Tom Monson." He talked about encouraging new converts to go to the temple. Someone had told him that converts couldn't go to the temple for a year after their baptism, but he said that they could go when they were twelve, referring to baptisms. After the fireside, they had cheesecake for refreshments. I was only able to eat the cherry cheesecake, and I remember having a discussion with Chase Elwood about it. I had two pieces of it. I remember talking to Emily Farris, but she had to go because her ride was leaving. Then I went home. When I walked inside, my roommate Ammon was watching the Grammys. A blue-haired woman was singing, and I asked, "Is that Katy Perry?" It was. Then a little later I was around when they were announcing the best country album. I was glad Lady Antebellum won for Own the Night. I told Ammon that I wasn't too big on country, but that I really liked that album. He said he knew the "Just a Kiss" single. I told Ammon that I was sad Christina Perri wasn't nominated for anything. I didn't watch the Grammys, but I did look up the results, and I was amazed Adele won every award she was up for. After the Grammys, Ammon was playing Katy Perry's new song, "Part of Me," from YouTube. I asked my room roommate if he minded if I watched something. He didn't mind, and I watched the Peanuts Motion Comics Valentine clip; he looked back at my computer screen at the scene in which Lucy insists Linus draws the mouth on the picture he drew of her.
2011. I went grocery shopping, and I wanted to buy stuff to make cookies for my home teachers. I texted my roommate Zach if I should do sugar cookies or M&M cookies, but he didn't respond in time, so I just went and bought stuff for M&M cookies. That ended up being what he suggested anyway. I had to work that night, setting up a room in the Smith Fieldhouse for church the next day.
2010. I think this was the day I was walking to my calculus class in the morning and I met Brian Clancy, a guy in my class. We started talking and he said that he had forgotten the orange juice he was going to take to his dance class. I think he said that he expected that he was going to get called on a Spanish-speaking mission, since he spoke Spanish. But I told him that I had taken four years of Spanish, two years of French, and one year of ASL, and got called English speaking. Since I was temporarily without a car, my mom came down and picked me up for the weekend. I brought some CDs to listen to in the car, Cherie Call's Grace and the Vince Guaraldi and the Lost Cues from the Charlie Brown Television Specials CDs.When we got home, I wanted to look at my Peanuts music book, but we didn't know where it was. They asked Allie if she knew where it was; she had taken it in the car. Susanne said, "Of course my daughter would have it; it has names in it!" That night I went with my parents to a Temple Square concert, since I had to attend concerts for my Music 101 class. It was in the Assembly Hall and it was a showcase of music that had been submitted to the Church. They had an institute choir that was pretty good, but the girl playing the bass (or maybe another instrument) wasn't very good. A children's choir sang the children's songs; the guy in charge said it was "the best part." The kids were just a stake choir, and we were impressed with how good they were. There was a song about tithing, and there was an extra verse to "My Heavenly Father Loves Me." It wasn't well attended, which made me sad.
2009. Elder Betenson and I were out walking when Elder Wilson called me. It was slightly windy, and I could barely hear him on the phone. I said, "I can't hear you because of the wind," so then Elder Betenson said we could stop so that I could hear better. He told me that Sister Andrus, the former member who was married to the High Priests Group Leader in Ritzville, agreed to take the lessons. That night we went to our meeting with the bishopric and they gave us a new ward list. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today we did our sacred planning, which was very interesting. At this point I'm observing to figure out how I can help Elder Betenson.
"Our appointment today totally dogged us so we did some tracting and follow-ups. We got a new ward list with twenty-six names that weren't there in April, so we have a lot of good following up to do.
"And Elder Wilson called and made me sad to have left, because Sister Andrus has agreed to take the lessons."
2008. I think this was the day that I was with Elder Rand (since our companions were sick) and we were driving down a hill when the brakes made a really terrible noise. We ended up going to a car repair place to get the brakes fixed. While we were waiting, we went to the Mexican restaurant that was nearby, where we had gone on Christmas Eve. It seems like someone might have also given us a dinner that had heart-shaped chocolates in it.
2006. I think for some reason my mom and Allie didn't go to church with us, or didn't go the whole time--it had something to do with my mom's friend Jackie. I remember remembering Allie eating a Valentine cookie from nursery the year before, and I realized that Allie wouldn't have another Valentine's Day in nursery, and it made me sad. I'm not sure why this picture was taken, but it was:
2005. My brother and his wife and baby had to move in after their apartment flooded. So we hurriedly packed all my stuff out of my bedroom and put it in the smaller one so that they could have the bigger bedroom.
2001. I think this was the day I sprained my wrist. We had these activities where we all got in lines and did some activity, and then we had to rotate after each activity. I was at the front and I was rotating to the back, but I didn't want to hold everyone up, so I ran. I slipped and hurt my right wrist. It hurt all day. After school, I told my mom, and she wondered why I didn't call home. I said it didn't hurt that bad. We went to InstaCare. They took an x-ray, but they couldn't tell whether it was broken or not. I hoped that it was broken, because that would mean I continued a pattern of having a broken bone in even-numbered grades: kindergarten, 2nd grade, 4th grade, and then 6th grade. (It turned out not being broken.)
2000. We went to my cousins' house that day and we went shopping at Macey's, where my mom bought colored Nilla wafers for the mini cheesecakes she was making the next day. I think this was the time that afterward, Jesse and I were playing at the Super Nintendo, and Wayne asked where our moms were. We said we thought they were out doing more shopping. He said grumpily, "This is bull****," and Jesse said, "Daddy said a bad word!" Wayne didn't seem to care.
1999. For our Valentine's Day party, we were playing spelling baseball, where if you spell it right, you get to move bases. While I was in line, I lost a tooth. That night I watched a Valentine-themed episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch while eating my candy, including a red and white Lifesaver. I showed David the Bart Simpson valentine I got from Tory Jackson. It said "No school today" inside a circle with a cross through it. When my mom saw it, she pointed out that it should really say "School today" inside that circle, since it was being crossed out.
1998. I would have filled out my valentines for the class party the next day.
1996. My mom packed a Little Debbie heart-shaped chocolate cake in my lunch, and I tried to bite it into the shape of a top hat in honor of Lincoln's birthday.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Valentine's Eve
I'm going to remember as many details as I can about February 13.
2012. My roommate Ammon's girlfriend had pasted paper hearts all over our door. So Ammon was making something for her. I was watching A Charlie Brown Valentine on my computer when he came in and asked if I had markers or something. I knew I had some colored Sharpies, so I started looking. He was blasting the Katy Perry "Part of Me" lyric video, which had debuted the day before:
I asked him if it was from her Teenage Dream album; he said it was just a new single. As I was pulling stuff rapidly out of a box to find the markers, he told me I didn't need to tear my room apart.
2011. I was wearing my gaudy Valentine tie. After church my roommate Zach and I delivered cookies to our home teachees; Briana commented on my tie.
2010. In the morning we went to Mr. Mac so I could get a new suit. As they were fitting me for it, the man commented on my Snoopy Valentine shirt, and said I should wear it the next day. My mom said that the next day was church. Allie got some toys from Matt for Valentine's Day, including a squishy caterpillar. I think on this day I was trying to play a bunch of songs from my Peanuts piano book, but since I don't play piano, it didn't work too well. I even played Christmas songs, and my mom was surprised when I was playing "The Christmas Song." Then we went to Trolley Square to go to the Old Spaghetti Factory. I kept reminding my family about the shootings that occurred there three years before. My mom ordered the menu item called potpourri for my dad and said he always pronounced it "pot poury."
2009. Elder Betenson and I were talking to a guy outside when a member drove up to us, joking that he was running us over. It interrupted our discussion with the guy outside, although he obviously wasn't interested anyway. Elder Betenson was complaining about the member, saying he was really weird. We met a potential investigator named Don and went in and had a lesson with him. I had an awkward moment when I was telling the story of the First Vision and accidentally combined "hearts" and "far" into one word, but thankfully no one laughed or said anything. Then that night we had dinner with Johnny, who wasn't a member but was very friendly to missionaries. He was moving out. Elder Betenson told me about how smart their little daughter was. We took our shoes off at the door. The Isaksens, some members who lived down the street, came over too. Sister Isaksen said to us, "This is a joke I heard from a returned missionary on the radio in Salt Lake City." Then she told a kind of dirty joke and said she didn't get it until she was married. I wondered why she was telling it to us. Johnny gave us ties as a farewell gift, and we took pictures.
This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today we walked all over checking up on new names. We street contacted a guy and a weird member interrupted us by driving right up to us. It's like, 'Can't you see we're doing missionary work?' Normal people would leave us alone.
"But the best part was following up with a potential, Don, who became a new investigator! Then we had dinner with a nonmember named Johnny, who is moving out."
2008. I think this was the day that Elder Chun was finally feeling well enough again to come back to our area after being sick for a week. It might also be the day that I got a Snoopy valentine from my mom.
2006. I was wearing my Snoopy "Cool Love" shirt, and my sister pointed out that the red splatters on it looked like blood. (They really did.) This might have been the day that she had bought a Valentine red velvet cake at the store because Allie wanted it.
2005. I remember sitting on the stand to bless the sacrament and noticing that Wendy Moosman was wearing a Valentine's Day tie with Peanuts characters on it. I wondered where she got it and I was envious. I remember getting Allie out of her carseat when we got home from church. She was eating a red heart-shaped cookie she had gotten in nursery. It was so cute to see her eating it. She was brand new to nursery. This is one of my memories that kind of makes me sad.
2004. I lent someone my VHS copy of Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown to show in seminary. After school, Daniel Bitner told me that she had my movie, but I had to get on the bus, so I didn't get it back. That was OK with me, because I wanted to watch the newer special, A Charlie Brown Valentine (which was on DVD). My mom brought home all the Valentine candy she got from school. I think that night they gave me my Valentine present, the first season of Gilligan's Island. Then I think we went to Shopko so I could pick up my new glasses. It sure was weird wearing a new prescription; everything looked distorted and small.
2001. This might have been the day I sprained my wrist, but I think that happened the day before. They gave us lists of our partners for the Valentine dance the next day. They said that everyone got to dance with everyone they requested, except for Andreia Dixon, because too many people wanted to dance with her. I was therefore surprised that I got paired with her for one of the dances, since I didn't request her and I found it unlikely she would request me.
2000. I wore my gaudy Valentine tie to church. After church we lit our fireplace and my mom made mini cheesecakes with colored Nilla wafers. I read the final Peanuts strip in the Deseret News. When my sister came over for dinner, I showed it to her and she said Schulz had died. I didn't believe her, but it was true. My brother was talking about how he was sure one of his roommates was going to propose the next day. My cousins might have come over; if they did, I know we watched Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown and ate conversation hearts. I remember my dad watching 60 Minutes and it talked about Charles Schulz. Maybe this was the night I made my box for valentines out of a shoe box. I don't remember the specific day for that, but I can't imagine I would have done it any earlier, since I tended to procrastinate.
1998. It was Courtney Brown's birthday and it was also Friday the 13th. Her parents came and talked about her birthday being on the 13th. (At the time I remember thinking she was born on Friday the 13th, but when I look at a calendar that's not possible.) That day we handed out valentines. When I gave one to Skyler, the boy with the mullet and earrings, he said, "Great, a valentine with no candy." I was confused because I had put candy in each valentine. When I finished handing them out, I noticed some extra Kisses in the bottom of the plastic bag, so I realized that some had fallen out of the envelopes. Then I went home and watched a Valentine episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
1997. I remember filling out my valentines to give to everyone the next day.
1996. Same story as above.
Related posts:
Remember Every Detail, Volume 6: Valentine's Day
A year of holiday memories
2012. My roommate Ammon's girlfriend had pasted paper hearts all over our door. So Ammon was making something for her. I was watching A Charlie Brown Valentine on my computer when he came in and asked if I had markers or something. I knew I had some colored Sharpies, so I started looking. He was blasting the Katy Perry "Part of Me" lyric video, which had debuted the day before:
I asked him if it was from her Teenage Dream album; he said it was just a new single. As I was pulling stuff rapidly out of a box to find the markers, he told me I didn't need to tear my room apart.
2011. I was wearing my gaudy Valentine tie. After church my roommate Zach and I delivered cookies to our home teachees; Briana commented on my tie.
2010. In the morning we went to Mr. Mac so I could get a new suit. As they were fitting me for it, the man commented on my Snoopy Valentine shirt, and said I should wear it the next day. My mom said that the next day was church. Allie got some toys from Matt for Valentine's Day, including a squishy caterpillar. I think on this day I was trying to play a bunch of songs from my Peanuts piano book, but since I don't play piano, it didn't work too well. I even played Christmas songs, and my mom was surprised when I was playing "The Christmas Song." Then we went to Trolley Square to go to the Old Spaghetti Factory. I kept reminding my family about the shootings that occurred there three years before. My mom ordered the menu item called potpourri for my dad and said he always pronounced it "pot poury."
2009. Elder Betenson and I were talking to a guy outside when a member drove up to us, joking that he was running us over. It interrupted our discussion with the guy outside, although he obviously wasn't interested anyway. Elder Betenson was complaining about the member, saying he was really weird. We met a potential investigator named Don and went in and had a lesson with him. I had an awkward moment when I was telling the story of the First Vision and accidentally combined "hearts" and "far" into one word, but thankfully no one laughed or said anything. Then that night we had dinner with Johnny, who wasn't a member but was very friendly to missionaries. He was moving out. Elder Betenson told me about how smart their little daughter was. We took our shoes off at the door. The Isaksens, some members who lived down the street, came over too. Sister Isaksen said to us, "This is a joke I heard from a returned missionary on the radio in Salt Lake City." Then she told a kind of dirty joke and said she didn't get it until she was married. I wondered why she was telling it to us. Johnny gave us ties as a farewell gift, and we took pictures.
"Today we walked all over checking up on new names. We street contacted a guy and a weird member interrupted us by driving right up to us. It's like, 'Can't you see we're doing missionary work?' Normal people would leave us alone.
"But the best part was following up with a potential, Don, who became a new investigator! Then we had dinner with a nonmember named Johnny, who is moving out."
2008. I think this was the day that Elder Chun was finally feeling well enough again to come back to our area after being sick for a week. It might also be the day that I got a Snoopy valentine from my mom.
2006. I was wearing my Snoopy "Cool Love" shirt, and my sister pointed out that the red splatters on it looked like blood. (They really did.) This might have been the day that she had bought a Valentine red velvet cake at the store because Allie wanted it.
2005. I remember sitting on the stand to bless the sacrament and noticing that Wendy Moosman was wearing a Valentine's Day tie with Peanuts characters on it. I wondered where she got it and I was envious. I remember getting Allie out of her carseat when we got home from church. She was eating a red heart-shaped cookie she had gotten in nursery. It was so cute to see her eating it. She was brand new to nursery. This is one of my memories that kind of makes me sad.
2004. I lent someone my VHS copy of Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown to show in seminary. After school, Daniel Bitner told me that she had my movie, but I had to get on the bus, so I didn't get it back. That was OK with me, because I wanted to watch the newer special, A Charlie Brown Valentine (which was on DVD). My mom brought home all the Valentine candy she got from school. I think that night they gave me my Valentine present, the first season of Gilligan's Island. Then I think we went to Shopko so I could pick up my new glasses. It sure was weird wearing a new prescription; everything looked distorted and small.
2001. This might have been the day I sprained my wrist, but I think that happened the day before. They gave us lists of our partners for the Valentine dance the next day. They said that everyone got to dance with everyone they requested, except for Andreia Dixon, because too many people wanted to dance with her. I was therefore surprised that I got paired with her for one of the dances, since I didn't request her and I found it unlikely she would request me.
2000. I wore my gaudy Valentine tie to church. After church we lit our fireplace and my mom made mini cheesecakes with colored Nilla wafers. I read the final Peanuts strip in the Deseret News. When my sister came over for dinner, I showed it to her and she said Schulz had died. I didn't believe her, but it was true. My brother was talking about how he was sure one of his roommates was going to propose the next day. My cousins might have come over; if they did, I know we watched Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown and ate conversation hearts. I remember my dad watching 60 Minutes and it talked about Charles Schulz. Maybe this was the night I made my box for valentines out of a shoe box. I don't remember the specific day for that, but I can't imagine I would have done it any earlier, since I tended to procrastinate.
1998. It was Courtney Brown's birthday and it was also Friday the 13th. Her parents came and talked about her birthday being on the 13th. (At the time I remember thinking she was born on Friday the 13th, but when I look at a calendar that's not possible.) That day we handed out valentines. When I gave one to Skyler, the boy with the mullet and earrings, he said, "Great, a valentine with no candy." I was confused because I had put candy in each valentine. When I finished handing them out, I noticed some extra Kisses in the bottom of the plastic bag, so I realized that some had fallen out of the envelopes. Then I went home and watched a Valentine episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
1997. I remember filling out my valentines to give to everyone the next day.
1996. Same story as above.
Related posts:
Remember Every Detail, Volume 6: Valentine's Day
A year of holiday memories
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Martin Luther King Day
I'm going to remember as many details as I can about Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
2012. I remember going to Walmart with my mom. I think this might have been the time that we were talking about someone's marital status and as we got out of the car, I said, "The only good thing about her husband is the money," and I wondered what the man walking by thought. I said that I wanted to get some candy for my Jar of Hearts that I would take to Provo. I got some large conversation hearts. My mom wanted some gummy cinnamon hearts. She liked the color of the cherry ones better (a brighter red) but preferred the cinnamon flavor. I think we bought a printer, but I actually didn't take it to Provo. When we were driving home, KSL was having a recap of some awards show and they said they were pleased when Madonna called out Lady Gaga. (Incidentally, I don't think that "Born This Way" plagiarizes Madonna.) Then my mom started talking about the Celtic Woman CD my dad got her for Christmas, saying my dad is "so funny" because she had never expressed any interest in anything like that. We started listening to that CD, and I was telling my mom about how one of my mission companions had had it. Then I drove back to Provo.
2011.I think this was the day my windshield was replaced. I think this was also the day that my cousin Joey came over for some reason and he was hiding from Allie. I was paranoid about driving back to Provo in case it started snowing or I hit a pothole or something but I didn't know where the emergency light button was. Joey went out to the car to find it. When I expressed my worry about it snowing or something, he said I could take State Street all the way to Provo. We laughed at that idea.
2010. I went to Kohl's with my mom, sister, and niece. I found a clearance Christmas shirt with Oscar the Grouch. I got it, along with a St. Patrick's Day t-shirt. They found a red hooded jacket that they all really liked, but Nan worried that it was too small and Allie would soon outgrow it. Allie had a fit because she wanted it. But my mom said she would get it for her if she would calm down, because my mom liked the way it looked. At the checkout, my mom offered to get Allie a stuffed animal instead of the jacket, but she still wanted the jacket. On our way home, we went to the Atlantis Burger drive-thru. Allie was being kind of crazy. She was shrieking, so my mom and her mom told her she couldn't do that. She started giggling a lot, saying there was an owl on a car outside. I looked and I saw the bird. I said, "I don't think that's an owl, but it is a big bird!" It was a grouse or something. When the owners of the car came out, they just drove off, and the bird stayed on their hood. It might have finally flown off when they got on the road. Then I drove back to Provo. I think I went to dinner group and they had bought bagged Valentine cookies that had little messages on them. I was glad to have a dessert I could eat. They started talking about how conversation hearts are hard and unpleasant, but I said that they had changed and they were no longer hard.
2009. I suspect that Elder Wilson and I stayed with the elders in Airway Heights that evening because of zone conference the next morning, but I don't recall details.
2008. We went and played dodgeball at the church where the Franklin Park elders had church. Elder Ashton and Elder "Ech" had come down from Deer Park. I kept getting hit in the head with the ball; sometimes it knocked my glasses off. After the fourth time, I didn't want to play anymore. It was a full moon that night, so I was talking about how I couldn't stay outside too long or else I would turn into a wolf. We were in a car wash when Elder Chun asked me if I really thought I was a werewolf. I neither confirmed it or denied it but simply said, "What do you think?" We visited the Cunninghams. The Cunninghams were a family that shifted in and out of activity and they had been fellowshipping a woman named Debbie who was almost baptized but couldn't be because she was living with her boyfriend. They had just had dinner, and Sister Cunningham offered us some, but we declined. Sister Cunningham was cleaning (or maybe she was actually making dinner) and they stored their pans in their oven. Brother Cunningham started lambasting Elder Chun about the incident with Debbie, that we had not made it clear that she had to be married and that his wife was the one who had to tell her. (In fact, we had previously discussed it with Sister Cunningham, and she said she thought Debbie knew.) Then he started making an excuse that they weren't going to church to recover from the incident. It was kind of awkward, because I could tell he was addressing Elder Chun (since I was a greenie) and I had my back to him for a lot of the time, but then eventually I turned around. In retrospect, I think Elder Chun did do a lot of things wrong, but that was no excuse for the Cunninghams to go inactive. Here is my journal entry for the day:
"The preparation part of today was fun. We went and played dodgeball with the other elders. I got hit in the head several times, each by a different person, and after the fourth time I didn't want to play anymore. I did join in a little later, though.
"Then we went to the Marks's where Elder Johnson and Elder Spahr are. We played a game called Bang! and I got in an intense, long game with Sister Marks.
"After that we came home and cleaned our car since we are trading it in tomorrow for a new one.
"We had a dinner and then were supposed to see the Parrishes, a formerly less-active family, but then they cancelled. Then we went to another appointment but they weren't there. Then we stopped by the Cunninghams and Brother Cunningham chewed us out for setting a date with Debbie. That with the fact that it was a full moon made this not the best evening."
2007. There are two possibilities I can think of for this day. One is that my dad asked me to help him move the new elliptical machine from the Suburban. We had to wear gloves, since it was cold and it had been sitting in the car. The other possibility is that my mom's friend Jackie was over and Allie was sitting on one of the feet of the elliptical. I moved it to give her a ride, but she fell off. She got mad at me for going too fast, but Jackie said that maybe she wasn't holding on tight enough. [This entry was taken from my last blog post.]
2004. We were in Fillmore visiting my grandparents (my grandpa called the holiday "Black Monday") and I was wearing a Snoopy shirt. We went somewhere; my mom rode with my grandma in our car, and I rode with my dad and my grandpa in theirs. My grandpa sat in the backseat and let me sit in the front. I kept closing my eyes, and my dad kept asking if I was falling asleep, but I wasn't.
2003. This was a very eventful weekend, but I can't specifically remember what happened on the Monday.
1996. My cousins were all over at our house. They were playing some raucous game. I said I wanted to play a Martin Luther King game. My brother said that then we could play someone getting shot. Even at seven years old I recognized that as kind of insensitive. [I also took this one from my last post.]
2012. I remember going to Walmart with my mom. I think this might have been the time that we were talking about someone's marital status and as we got out of the car, I said, "The only good thing about her husband is the money," and I wondered what the man walking by thought. I said that I wanted to get some candy for my Jar of Hearts that I would take to Provo. I got some large conversation hearts. My mom wanted some gummy cinnamon hearts. She liked the color of the cherry ones better (a brighter red) but preferred the cinnamon flavor. I think we bought a printer, but I actually didn't take it to Provo. When we were driving home, KSL was having a recap of some awards show and they said they were pleased when Madonna called out Lady Gaga. (Incidentally, I don't think that "Born This Way" plagiarizes Madonna.) Then my mom started talking about the Celtic Woman CD my dad got her for Christmas, saying my dad is "so funny" because she had never expressed any interest in anything like that. We started listening to that CD, and I was telling my mom about how one of my mission companions had had it. Then I drove back to Provo.
2011.I think this was the day my windshield was replaced. I think this was also the day that my cousin Joey came over for some reason and he was hiding from Allie. I was paranoid about driving back to Provo in case it started snowing or I hit a pothole or something but I didn't know where the emergency light button was. Joey went out to the car to find it. When I expressed my worry about it snowing or something, he said I could take State Street all the way to Provo. We laughed at that idea.
2010. I went to Kohl's with my mom, sister, and niece. I found a clearance Christmas shirt with Oscar the Grouch. I got it, along with a St. Patrick's Day t-shirt. They found a red hooded jacket that they all really liked, but Nan worried that it was too small and Allie would soon outgrow it. Allie had a fit because she wanted it. But my mom said she would get it for her if she would calm down, because my mom liked the way it looked. At the checkout, my mom offered to get Allie a stuffed animal instead of the jacket, but she still wanted the jacket. On our way home, we went to the Atlantis Burger drive-thru. Allie was being kind of crazy. She was shrieking, so my mom and her mom told her she couldn't do that. She started giggling a lot, saying there was an owl on a car outside. I looked and I saw the bird. I said, "I don't think that's an owl, but it is a big bird!" It was a grouse or something. When the owners of the car came out, they just drove off, and the bird stayed on their hood. It might have finally flown off when they got on the road. Then I drove back to Provo. I think I went to dinner group and they had bought bagged Valentine cookies that had little messages on them. I was glad to have a dessert I could eat. They started talking about how conversation hearts are hard and unpleasant, but I said that they had changed and they were no longer hard.
2009. I suspect that Elder Wilson and I stayed with the elders in Airway Heights that evening because of zone conference the next morning, but I don't recall details.
2008. We went and played dodgeball at the church where the Franklin Park elders had church. Elder Ashton and Elder "Ech" had come down from Deer Park. I kept getting hit in the head with the ball; sometimes it knocked my glasses off. After the fourth time, I didn't want to play anymore. It was a full moon that night, so I was talking about how I couldn't stay outside too long or else I would turn into a wolf. We were in a car wash when Elder Chun asked me if I really thought I was a werewolf. I neither confirmed it or denied it but simply said, "What do you think?" We visited the Cunninghams. The Cunninghams were a family that shifted in and out of activity and they had been fellowshipping a woman named Debbie who was almost baptized but couldn't be because she was living with her boyfriend. They had just had dinner, and Sister Cunningham offered us some, but we declined. Sister Cunningham was cleaning (or maybe she was actually making dinner) and they stored their pans in their oven. Brother Cunningham started lambasting Elder Chun about the incident with Debbie, that we had not made it clear that she had to be married and that his wife was the one who had to tell her. (In fact, we had previously discussed it with Sister Cunningham, and she said she thought Debbie knew.) Then he started making an excuse that they weren't going to church to recover from the incident. It was kind of awkward, because I could tell he was addressing Elder Chun (since I was a greenie) and I had my back to him for a lot of the time, but then eventually I turned around. In retrospect, I think Elder Chun did do a lot of things wrong, but that was no excuse for the Cunninghams to go inactive. Here is my journal entry for the day:
"The preparation part of today was fun. We went and played dodgeball with the other elders. I got hit in the head several times, each by a different person, and after the fourth time I didn't want to play anymore. I did join in a little later, though.
"Then we went to the Marks's where Elder Johnson and Elder Spahr are. We played a game called Bang! and I got in an intense, long game with Sister Marks.
"After that we came home and cleaned our car since we are trading it in tomorrow for a new one.
"We had a dinner and then were supposed to see the Parrishes, a formerly less-active family, but then they cancelled. Then we went to another appointment but they weren't there. Then we stopped by the Cunninghams and Brother Cunningham chewed us out for setting a date with Debbie. That with the fact that it was a full moon made this not the best evening."
2007. There are two possibilities I can think of for this day. One is that my dad asked me to help him move the new elliptical machine from the Suburban. We had to wear gloves, since it was cold and it had been sitting in the car. The other possibility is that my mom's friend Jackie was over and Allie was sitting on one of the feet of the elliptical. I moved it to give her a ride, but she fell off. She got mad at me for going too fast, but Jackie said that maybe she wasn't holding on tight enough. [This entry was taken from my last blog post.]
2004. We were in Fillmore visiting my grandparents (my grandpa called the holiday "Black Monday") and I was wearing a Snoopy shirt. We went somewhere; my mom rode with my grandma in our car, and I rode with my dad and my grandpa in theirs. My grandpa sat in the backseat and let me sit in the front. I kept closing my eyes, and my dad kept asking if I was falling asleep, but I wasn't.
2003. This was a very eventful weekend, but I can't specifically remember what happened on the Monday.
1996. My cousins were all over at our house. They were playing some raucous game. I said I wanted to play a Martin Luther King game. My brother said that then we could play someone getting shot. Even at seven years old I recognized that as kind of insensitive. [I also took this one from my last post.]
Sunday, January 13, 2013
January 15
January 15 is the birthday of my youngest nephew, "Baby" (Nathaniel), and it is also the day I start the Valentine's Day season (although this has not always been the case).
2012. It was a Sunday, and I was at home. I think it was the first time I'd been on Facebook for eleven days. I remember working on my blog on the computer downstairs when Allie came down and told me that my mom was making a dessert; she was making it Valentine-themed so I could eat it. I think she asked whether I wanted cake or cookies. It ended up being sugar cookies. I made a cynical Valentine image for the background for my blog. The blog post that night was a memory post, Remember Every Detail, Volume 6: Valentine's Day. After I posted it Jesse told me he liked my background. Then on Facebook he shared a version of Vince Guaraldi's "Peppermint Patty," one of the best songs ever.
2011. I remember that the night before I stayed up late and when it was midnight I added my Valentine music to my playlist. I know I drove home that morning, but I can't remember specific details about the day.
2010. It was a Friday. I was just about to go into my Music 101 class when my mom texted me, saying that my new nephew was coming early. I was quite surprised--he was very early--and a little sad, because I wanted him to be born in February. (That way, David's family would have birthdays in October, November, December, January, and February.) Then I drove home that afternoon. I think we had pizza and I was doing my math homework that was due by midnight. Susanne mentioned to me that I could call my cousin April for help. I noticed that David had updated his blog with pictures of the new baby. Of course, I don't think newborns are that cute (Baby is adorable now, but he wasn't then), so I preferred to watch an old video of Preston.
My mom heard it and correctly guessed it was one when he was in the bath. My parents went to bed, but I wanted to stay up. Previously my sister had mentioned that even though her bed was in the family room, she didn't mind if I did stuff in the room, but now I realize she probably didn't mean I could stay in there when she wanted to go to bed. So when she wanted to go to bed, I was on the elliptical watching an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies. She told me that Allie had been really funny recently. When Susanne was getting her engagement ring, Allie confused karat and carrot and said she wanted her ring to be a six-inch carrot.
2009. We went and visited Allie Vetch in the morning. That afternoon we helped a pseudo-investigator named David chop wood. I'm not coordinated, so he kept worrying about my form in chopping the wood and worried I was going to chop myself. Then we had a lesson with Cassandra Johnson. We asked her if she had prayed about baptism. She said it was something she felt she should do. Then we went home to make preparations for the baptism, and someone threw something at our window and sarcastically said something like, "I worship the devil!" This is my journal entry for the day:
"Even though Elder Wilson was sick today, we had a good day. This morning we had a lesson with Allie Vetch. Later we helped David. That was awkward; my ineptitude became ultra apparent. He is extremely ADD. Then we had a lesson with Hailey, which went all right. Lastly we put Cassandra on date. I was somewhat questioning it, but the rightness of the act was confirmed when some obnoxious person threw a rock or something at our window and yelled something sarcastic."
2008. We were going on an exchange with Elder Spahr and Elder Johnson that night. Elder Chun asked me to call them. He said that we were probably distracting them during a lesson, so I left a message saying, "This is the devil." Then we got to their house. Elder Spahr told me not to wet the bed.
2007. This was Martin Luther King Day, and there are two possibilities I can think of for this day. One is that my dad asked me to help him move the new elliptical machine from the Suburban. We had to wear gloves, since it was cold and it had been sitting in the car. The other possibility is that my mom's friend Jackie was over and Allie was sitting on one of the feet of the elliptical. I moved it to give her a ride, but she fell off. She got mad at me for going too fast, but Jackie said that maybe she wasn't holding on tight enough.
2006. I think this might have been the time I asked Allie if she wanted to watch Bewitched, since I had gotten the second season on DVD just two days before and wanted to watch the St. Patrick's Day episode. She said she did, but then when we were watching it she lost interest. But maybe it was a different Sunday.
2000. I invited my friend David Christensen over to play. He seemed incredulous that I had put up Valentine's Day decorations the night before. We went outside--it was kind of a warm day--and I wanted to improvise a song about spring. I wanted him to do background vocals, like saying "ooh buds" when I sang lyrics about buds on the trees. We played charades in the front yard. I was pretending to be a ballerina right when Austin Anderson drove by, and I wondered what he thought if he had seen me.
1999. I came home from school--early out--and set to putting up Valentine's Day decorations, including putting the wire heart garland on the stair railing.
2012. It was a Sunday, and I was at home. I think it was the first time I'd been on Facebook for eleven days. I remember working on my blog on the computer downstairs when Allie came down and told me that my mom was making a dessert; she was making it Valentine-themed so I could eat it. I think she asked whether I wanted cake or cookies. It ended up being sugar cookies. I made a cynical Valentine image for the background for my blog. The blog post that night was a memory post, Remember Every Detail, Volume 6: Valentine's Day. After I posted it Jesse told me he liked my background. Then on Facebook he shared a version of Vince Guaraldi's "Peppermint Patty," one of the best songs ever.
2011. I remember that the night before I stayed up late and when it was midnight I added my Valentine music to my playlist. I know I drove home that morning, but I can't remember specific details about the day.
2010. It was a Friday. I was just about to go into my Music 101 class when my mom texted me, saying that my new nephew was coming early. I was quite surprised--he was very early--and a little sad, because I wanted him to be born in February. (That way, David's family would have birthdays in October, November, December, January, and February.) Then I drove home that afternoon. I think we had pizza and I was doing my math homework that was due by midnight. Susanne mentioned to me that I could call my cousin April for help. I noticed that David had updated his blog with pictures of the new baby. Of course, I don't think newborns are that cute (Baby is adorable now, but he wasn't then), so I preferred to watch an old video of Preston.
My mom heard it and correctly guessed it was one when he was in the bath. My parents went to bed, but I wanted to stay up. Previously my sister had mentioned that even though her bed was in the family room, she didn't mind if I did stuff in the room, but now I realize she probably didn't mean I could stay in there when she wanted to go to bed. So when she wanted to go to bed, I was on the elliptical watching an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies. She told me that Allie had been really funny recently. When Susanne was getting her engagement ring, Allie confused karat and carrot and said she wanted her ring to be a six-inch carrot.
2009. We went and visited Allie Vetch in the morning. That afternoon we helped a pseudo-investigator named David chop wood. I'm not coordinated, so he kept worrying about my form in chopping the wood and worried I was going to chop myself. Then we had a lesson with Cassandra Johnson. We asked her if she had prayed about baptism. She said it was something she felt she should do. Then we went home to make preparations for the baptism, and someone threw something at our window and sarcastically said something like, "I worship the devil!" This is my journal entry for the day:
"Even though Elder Wilson was sick today, we had a good day. This morning we had a lesson with Allie Vetch. Later we helped David. That was awkward; my ineptitude became ultra apparent. He is extremely ADD. Then we had a lesson with Hailey, which went all right. Lastly we put Cassandra on date. I was somewhat questioning it, but the rightness of the act was confirmed when some obnoxious person threw a rock or something at our window and yelled something sarcastic."
2008. We were going on an exchange with Elder Spahr and Elder Johnson that night. Elder Chun asked me to call them. He said that we were probably distracting them during a lesson, so I left a message saying, "This is the devil." Then we got to their house. Elder Spahr told me not to wet the bed.
2007. This was Martin Luther King Day, and there are two possibilities I can think of for this day. One is that my dad asked me to help him move the new elliptical machine from the Suburban. We had to wear gloves, since it was cold and it had been sitting in the car. The other possibility is that my mom's friend Jackie was over and Allie was sitting on one of the feet of the elliptical. I moved it to give her a ride, but she fell off. She got mad at me for going too fast, but Jackie said that maybe she wasn't holding on tight enough.
2006. I think this might have been the time I asked Allie if she wanted to watch Bewitched, since I had gotten the second season on DVD just two days before and wanted to watch the St. Patrick's Day episode. She said she did, but then when we were watching it she lost interest. But maybe it was a different Sunday.
2000. I invited my friend David Christensen over to play. He seemed incredulous that I had put up Valentine's Day decorations the night before. We went outside--it was kind of a warm day--and I wanted to improvise a song about spring. I wanted him to do background vocals, like saying "ooh buds" when I sang lyrics about buds on the trees. We played charades in the front yard. I was pretending to be a ballerina right when Austin Anderson drove by, and I wondered what he thought if he had seen me.
1999. I came home from school--early out--and set to putting up Valentine's Day decorations, including putting the wire heart garland on the stair railing.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
January 4, 2008
I could remember things about all sorts of January 4s, but I'm going to focus on one particularly unusual and sad one.
January 4, 2008, started out as a fairly typical day. We probably visited one Denise Beltran in the morning, and then a little later in the day we went home for lunch.
We lived with the Welshes, an elderly couple who are some of the funniest people ever. Elder Chun and I were up in the kitchen having lunch. Brother Welsh was gone somewhere, but Sister Welsh was home. The phone rang, and Elder Chun went downstairs. I was still in the kitchen while Sister Welsh answered the phone in the secondary sitting room. I remember her saying that her husband wasn't home, but that we missionaries were. Then she came out of that room calling, "Missionaries!" She seemed frantic and said to me that her son was on the phone, and she said, "I have the feeling something terrible's happened."
So we went and sat down on the couch. She held my hand. Her son said something, and she said, almost angrily, "What!?" Then she started squeezing my hand and crying. I heard her say that she didn't want any of hers going before she did. Then Elder Chun came up into the room. Sister Welsh told her son that the other missionary had just walked in and was wondering why we were holding hands and why she was crying. I think she then started telling her son about us, that I was from Utah and that the other was from California.
What had happened was that her youngest son had been killed in an accident while working on the newly renovated Utah capitol. Apparently he was underneath the building in a crawl space, and there were some electrical cords hanging down.
We were sitting at the kitchen table when Brother Welsh came home. She took him into their bedroom to break the news to him. When they were out of the room, Elder Chun said, "Awkward!" It seemed a little insensitive to me.
The Welshes' oldest son, Harold, had been in prison, and his bedroom was directly next to ours. Yes, that was kind of odd. At one point we heard him calling legal authorities--the parole office?--saying that it was an emergency. His brother had died in Utah, so he needed to leave the state.
We went tracting that night. At the first house we knocked on, the woman said, "JWs," as she shook our hands. I didn't know that stood for "Jehovah's Witness," so I thought she was saying her name. She talked about walking with God. At one point in the conversation, Elder Chun said, "As a Jehovah's Witness, do you..." He thought that when she said "JWs," she was saying she was a JW, but it was later evidenced that she thought we were the JWs. There was another house that was dark, but there were dogs barking. Eventually someone answered and said we were persistent but stupid for staying on the doorstep so long. (I probably had not wanted to knock on the door, since it was dark.) We tracted into some members, who invited us in. I think we didn't know them but we did figure out that they were members. One house had the phone ring right as the woman came to the door, so she conveniently used that as an excuse to say she couldn't talk and closed the door.
We went home that evening and some of the Priesthood from the ward were giving the Welshes blessings. We missed Sister Welsh's, but we went up for Harold's and Brother Welsh's. For some reason the people thought it was an occasion to use consecrated oil. I knew that it wasn't, but I didn't think it was the proper situation to say so. The Lawtons from across the street were there; Sister Lawton was an active Mormon but her husband was a Catholic. I don't think I knew that, and I wondered why he wasn't helping with blessings.
What surprised me about this experience was that of all the people this could have happened to, it happened to the son of the random couple I was living with in Mead, WA, right at the time I was there. After that, Sister Welsh seemed to have a sort of soft spot for me--she once said about me, "He was my friend when I needed a friend." I feel really bad for them.
Here is an article from the Deseret News about what happened.
This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today we taught a less-active lesson in the afternoon and a recent convert lesson in the morning. Our investigator cancelled, so we checked up on less-actives and part-member families this evening.
"We went tracting as well. The first house was a lady who thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses. We were able to convince her otherwise, but her attitude was definitely 'We have got a Bible." Another person lived in a dark house with barking dogs. He answered the door and said we were persistent but stupid. We knocked on a member's door, and then we went to a house where the lady told us she couldn't talk. Conveniently for her, the phone rang just as we got there which was why she couldn't talk.
"Today's various events, however, were overshadowed with sorrow. This afternoon, Elder Chun and I were up in the kitchen making lunch and talking with Sister Welsh. The phone rang so Sister Welsh answered it and Elder Chun went downstairs. Soon Sister Welsh came out of the room calling for us. She got me and told me she had a feeling something terrible happened and she wanted me with her. She grabbed my hand and brought me onto the couch, and squeezed my hand and cried as she heard the news that her youngest son had died in a construction accident. Needless to say the rest of the day was a downer. The tragic irony is that he was working on the Utah Capitol Building, and today is Utah's birthday.
"We gave Harold and Brother Welsh blessings with other men from the ward. We missed giving one to Sister Welsh because we had just come home and came upstairs after they had started. They're all headed off to Salt Lake tomorrow."
January 4, 2008, started out as a fairly typical day. We probably visited one Denise Beltran in the morning, and then a little later in the day we went home for lunch.
We lived with the Welshes, an elderly couple who are some of the funniest people ever. Elder Chun and I were up in the kitchen having lunch. Brother Welsh was gone somewhere, but Sister Welsh was home. The phone rang, and Elder Chun went downstairs. I was still in the kitchen while Sister Welsh answered the phone in the secondary sitting room. I remember her saying that her husband wasn't home, but that we missionaries were. Then she came out of that room calling, "Missionaries!" She seemed frantic and said to me that her son was on the phone, and she said, "I have the feeling something terrible's happened."
So we went and sat down on the couch. She held my hand. Her son said something, and she said, almost angrily, "What!?" Then she started squeezing my hand and crying. I heard her say that she didn't want any of hers going before she did. Then Elder Chun came up into the room. Sister Welsh told her son that the other missionary had just walked in and was wondering why we were holding hands and why she was crying. I think she then started telling her son about us, that I was from Utah and that the other was from California.
What had happened was that her youngest son had been killed in an accident while working on the newly renovated Utah capitol. Apparently he was underneath the building in a crawl space, and there were some electrical cords hanging down.
We were sitting at the kitchen table when Brother Welsh came home. She took him into their bedroom to break the news to him. When they were out of the room, Elder Chun said, "Awkward!" It seemed a little insensitive to me.
The Welshes' oldest son, Harold, had been in prison, and his bedroom was directly next to ours. Yes, that was kind of odd. At one point we heard him calling legal authorities--the parole office?--saying that it was an emergency. His brother had died in Utah, so he needed to leave the state.
We went tracting that night. At the first house we knocked on, the woman said, "JWs," as she shook our hands. I didn't know that stood for "Jehovah's Witness," so I thought she was saying her name. She talked about walking with God. At one point in the conversation, Elder Chun said, "As a Jehovah's Witness, do you..." He thought that when she said "JWs," she was saying she was a JW, but it was later evidenced that she thought we were the JWs. There was another house that was dark, but there were dogs barking. Eventually someone answered and said we were persistent but stupid for staying on the doorstep so long. (I probably had not wanted to knock on the door, since it was dark.) We tracted into some members, who invited us in. I think we didn't know them but we did figure out that they were members. One house had the phone ring right as the woman came to the door, so she conveniently used that as an excuse to say she couldn't talk and closed the door.
We went home that evening and some of the Priesthood from the ward were giving the Welshes blessings. We missed Sister Welsh's, but we went up for Harold's and Brother Welsh's. For some reason the people thought it was an occasion to use consecrated oil. I knew that it wasn't, but I didn't think it was the proper situation to say so. The Lawtons from across the street were there; Sister Lawton was an active Mormon but her husband was a Catholic. I don't think I knew that, and I wondered why he wasn't helping with blessings.
What surprised me about this experience was that of all the people this could have happened to, it happened to the son of the random couple I was living with in Mead, WA, right at the time I was there. After that, Sister Welsh seemed to have a sort of soft spot for me--she once said about me, "He was my friend when I needed a friend." I feel really bad for them.
Here is an article from the Deseret News about what happened.
This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today we taught a less-active lesson in the afternoon and a recent convert lesson in the morning. Our investigator cancelled, so we checked up on less-actives and part-member families this evening.
"We went tracting as well. The first house was a lady who thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses. We were able to convince her otherwise, but her attitude was definitely 'We have got a Bible." Another person lived in a dark house with barking dogs. He answered the door and said we were persistent but stupid. We knocked on a member's door, and then we went to a house where the lady told us she couldn't talk. Conveniently for her, the phone rang just as we got there which was why she couldn't talk.
"Today's various events, however, were overshadowed with sorrow. This afternoon, Elder Chun and I were up in the kitchen making lunch and talking with Sister Welsh. The phone rang so Sister Welsh answered it and Elder Chun went downstairs. Soon Sister Welsh came out of the room calling for us. She got me and told me she had a feeling something terrible happened and she wanted me with her. She grabbed my hand and brought me onto the couch, and squeezed my hand and cried as she heard the news that her youngest son had died in a construction accident. Needless to say the rest of the day was a downer. The tragic irony is that he was working on the Utah Capitol Building, and today is Utah's birthday.
"We gave Harold and Brother Welsh blessings with other men from the ward. We missed giving one to Sister Welsh because we had just come home and came upstairs after they had started. They're all headed off to Salt Lake tomorrow."
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