The day before Memorial Day

Last week I blogged about the Saturday before Memorial Day, and this week the topic is the day before the holiday (Sunday).

2013. After church I drove home, and I remember in the evening sitting on the couch in the living room, writing my blogs.

2012. I remember going to the singles ward up in NSL, and I felt bad that Brittany Bowman moved into that ward after I had unfriended her on Facebook. My mom had made a birthday cake for my dad with red, white, and blue sprinkles so that I could eat it. When she dished out my bowl, she had even put sprinkles on the ice cream. I didn't think sprinkles belonged on ice cream, and I would have been able to eat it anyway, since it was paired with the patriotic cake.

2011. I think I wore a sweater to the NSL singles ward, because it was a cool day and I could.

2010. I would have been home this day, but I can't remember what I did.

2009. This is what my journal says. I think when we met Rebecca's brother, we were looking for her, but he was the only one home and invited us in: "At church today Kim told us the talk with her mom wasn't the greatest, so we're going over tomorrow.

"This afternoon we tracted a small street but few people were home. Then we had dinner with the Smiths. After that we contacted Rebecca Dyer's brother, who isn't a member, so hopefully we can possibly teach him. Then we visited Brother Nickel, and gave Sister Carter a blessing."

2008. My companion at this time ruined my mission for those three months, and later during the week blamed me for all his shortcomings. At our visit with the Hokes, we were there way too long, and they played Bill Cosby's chocolate cake routine. Here is what the journal says:
"Today, Kristy and Austin were our only investigators at church, although Gina, an investigator from another stake, came with her friend.

"We overstayed with the Hokes--great family--and then we tried to see people. Our numbers this week are bad, and P-day isn't tomorrow. It will be an interesting day."

2007. We were camped in the backyard of my late grandparents' house, and I think that night we watched The Flying Nun on the little portable DVD player, in the trailer. 

2004. I think this was the time that we went down to my grandparents' house in Fillmore to go to church. I was dismayed when I realized that I had forgotten my dress shoes, but Grandpa Boyd told me that a lot of people at church wouldn't be in dress shoes either. But people wouldn't have noticed my shoes. David, Ya-ping, and a friend had not brought any church clothes at all. David said it was because they didn't know if they would be going to church. It seemed pretty obvious to me that if you didn't know, you would bring clothes just in case. They didn't even shower before church, and we had been camping. We were embarrassed to be with them, and Mom was really mad.

2001. My dad wasn't happy to turn 50. We were at Shingle Mill campground in Fillmore Canyon. That day we went to my grandparents' house in Fillmore before and after church; my dad said that it was fifty years ago to the day that he first entered the doorway to the kitchen (when he was born, the kitchen door was the front door of the house). Grandpa Boyd told my dad that he remembered when he came into the world. We went back up to the canyon, and my aunt Sarena brought my dad a cake that had "Over the Hill" decorations and black frosting on the edges. My cousin Steven got some all over his face and we discovered that the black frosting was blue when it was diluted.  Then my uncle Mike invited me to go adventuring in the red Jeep with him and my cousins Krishelle and Terrill. We went up the canyon, and I think we saw a place for cattle to drink. Then we looked out over Fillmore from the canyon; Mike pointed out the Maverik station. Krishelle pointed out tiny Flowell. We went to the "M" for "Millard" on the mountain; there were tin can lanterns all over the M for them to light up. I was immature and I thought it would be funny to make some weird noises by vibrating my cheeks. It really annoyed Krishelle, who kept saying "Stop that!" Then we went to a place known colloquially in Fillmore as Pink Elephant Lane; my uncle said that my dad had once crashed there. He told some silly jokes: Why do pink elephants paint their toenails red? So they can hide in cherry trees and Why do they paint their toenails green? So they can hide in lime trees. Then we went and filled up the Jeep at the Maverik station; I was surprised my uncle was buying gas on Sunday and I was especially surprised that he was also buying drinks. A snake had hitched a ride on the Jeep and fell off at the gas station. Mike asked a girl at another pump if she wanted a snake; she saw it and was a bit grossed out. Then we went back up to the canyon and our trailer's porch light was on. It was about 10:30 and everyone was going to bed; I was sad I missed a night of campfire business. This paragraph was taken from My dad's birthdays.

1993 or 1994. This might have been the time we had a little campfire devotional service. My memory tells me we even had sacrament, which is a big no-no, but since I was so young, it's possible that didn't happen.

Two days before Memorial Day

Memorial Day is coming up, so I'm going to remember what I did on the Saturday before Memorial Day.

2013. I went to the Deseret Book/Distribution store to buy a new journal. I wanted the Church-made ones, so I looked all over Distribution. I asked someone where they were, and she directed me back to Deseret Book. I looked at their journals, but there were none of the Church-made ones, so I didn't buy one. I remember spending a lot of time in the library, working on an assignment for my editing class. This might have been the time that when I went over to the restroom, I saw two people from my ward, Ben Savio and David Jones. This is what my journal says:
"I went to buy a new journal today, but apparently they don't make these anymore. I've had a really hard time staying focused and motivated today. The only productive thing I did was spend a few hours on an editing assignment, but I should have done more, 'cause it's a doozy. I have a cold or something."

2012. We were camping, and I had some hot chocolate with red, white, and blue star-shaped marshmallows in it. It was cold and wet. Susanne came up, and she had brought Buddy the dog. He was getting all in the mud, and then he would jump up on Allie and Susanne and get his muddy pawprints on the blanket. Nan said she used to make fun of someone who brought her dog camping, and here she was the crazy dog person. We were all thinking the same thing. Eventually we all left, and I was dropped off at my apartment. I offered to Allie to use my bathroom, but she didn't want to. When I told her that my roommates weren't home, she was willing to come in. My dad came in too, and for a brief moment my roommate Cameron came home and he seemed a little freaked out to see a strange man in the apartment. They left, and I got ready to come up. But I left a little later than I expected. I went to Smith's in Bountiful to get salt and vinegar chips and root beer for my dad's birthday, and while I was there my mom called me (or texted me) to see where I was.

2011. I remember going to Walmart with my family, and Allie was saying she wanted a treat. My mom offered to get her the movie Gnomeo and Juliet. But then she was saying again that she wanted a treat, and would rather have it than the movie. I pointed out to her how silly that was, because she could watch a movie over and over, and we still had some of my dad's birthday cake at home. My mom agreed with me, to Allie's chagrin.

2010. My parents came early in the morning to pick me up to go to Fillmore. I gave my dad the DVD I had bought for his birthday when I got in the car, and I even told my parents about the concert I had been to the night before and had brought the CD I got there, but they didn't seem interested. We went to McDonald's for breakfast, which I wasn't happy about, and Allie said, "Maybe we're going here because I'm here." She had a bunch of DVDs to watch in her portable DVD player. She had brought the movie Mamma Mia! which I didn't want to be around, as very few PG-13 movies fit my standards (I wondered why she was allowed to watch it!). My mom asked Allie if she could watch something else for me. Later, Allie was watching a Barbie movie, and she told me that I could watch it because it had boys in it; and she also told me I could watch Mamma Mia! because it had boys in it. I thought it was funny that the six-year-old thought I didn't want to watch a movie because I thought it didn't have boys in it. We went to Fillmore Canyon, and Matt and I were standing on a grassy portion near the creek, where the kids were throwing rocks into the stream. Matt asked me what classes I was taking; I said, "French and New Testament," and he said he had taken French. Allie tried to throw a rock in the stream, and she missed horribly and threw it at us. We went back up to the picnic area, and Sarena was making homemade ice cream. Allie said, "I want to sit on this rock," so we let her and walked away. Then Susanne realized that she was sitting there, waiting for Sarena to share her ice cream. She went and took Allie away. Allie was really mad, and Nan tried to explain why that wasn't polite. But then Sarena came around and offered some of her ice cream to all of us. Allie was happy about that, but I declined. We went back to Provo, and my dad rode up with me. I asked him if he wanted a granola bar, but he didn't.

2009. We were helping the Catmulls next door, and Sister Catmull offered us pizza. She asked me what I liked or didn't like, and I said I liked everything but mushrooms. One of the pizzas ended up being Hawaiian, which Elder LaPratt didn't like. Their grandson Tyson and his girlfriend and our investigator, Kim, were there. They also had a great-grandson, a two-year-old named Jake, there. He pointed to the fancy pizza with tomatoes on it, probably because he thought the tomatoes looked good. But when he tasted it, he got this cringe on his face. It was really funny. This is what my journal says:
"This morning we were going to help Brother Cooper, but he wasn't home. We visited Brother Sabin. At the end of lunch, Tyson Ball asked if we could help his grandpa next door. We did, and that allowed us to have a lesson with Kim after dinner. That went well. After that we helped the Ruddells."

2008. I don't remember much about this day, but I think we met with Denise in the church building after Elder Condie played in the stake softball game. This might have been the day I was amused by the scriptures talking about the fathers eating a sour grape and the children's teeth being set on edge. One of the members said, "Sounds like sour grapes to me." (Our district, including our zone leaders, would play softball with the ward members, which I don't necessarily think is a bad idea, but it was later forbidden. I would sit and read my scriptures, but it probably would have been better if I interacted with members, which was the point of playing.) This is what my journal says:
"There were two softball games today. I was able to read much of Isaiah during it. Then Denise kept her appointment and hopefully she'll come to church. We met with the Curtisses, and then stopped by various people. The Welshes made us dinner.

"Elder Condie wanted me to redo the progress records. It seems like he disapproves of everything I do since interviews."

2002. I was released from the hospital in the morning from having anaphylaxis. My grandparents came over, and my mom was folding laundry. I was mortified that she was folding my underwear in front of them, so I kept throwing water at her in the hopes that she would stop, but it just made her mad. I was talking about how my Spanish teacher had said that any extra credit had to be done before Friday (the day before), no exceptions, that if you were in the ambulance on your way to the hospital, it would still be too late. Although I wasn't doing any extra credit, I was in fact in an ambulance on my way to the hospital that day.

2001. I think we were playing with the little helicopter toys my mom had brought camping. Sometimes they would fly on top of the outhouse, which was brand new and therefore not smelly. My cousin Rayce would climb up and get it. I think I imagined it would be really funny if it landed in the little pipe thing.

1995. I think this was the time that I was riding up in a car with my dad, Susanne, and my cousins Rayce and Krishelle. My dad and sister were remarking about how high the creek was and were saying we couldn't play in it. Krishelle and I were talking about how it freaked us out to drive by the cliffs on the side of the road. When we got up to the campsite, my mom, who had been in another vehicle, got all the kids together and said, "OK, the rule is," and then she explained we couldn't go by the water. We told her we knew that already. She clapped her hands together at some point (I think after "OK"); I don't know if it was to get our attention or for dramatic effect.

Brother Heaston, the false-doctrine seminary teacher

In ninth grade at South Davis Junior High, I began seminary.

And looking back, it's sad to me that all of us students were introduced into seminary by having one Brother Heaston. We all liked him when we had him; he was a fun guy, and I think he was good at making students passionate about the gospel.

But I remember a few years later, I was in a conversation with people who had him, and although we had liked him at the time, we realized he taught some false doctrines and did some other questionable things. So I'm going to remember some of the things that make me question why he still got to teach seminary.

For one thing, his class was the most rigorous seminary class I had all four years, and it was more taxing than many of my regular classes. During spring break, we had to do a writeup about Isaiah. It was due the day after Easter, and it required us to read every day during spring break and write about it. Which meant he was basically ensuring that we would be doing homework on Easter, a family day. Toward the end of the year, we had to spend ten hours on a gospel project, at a time when we had projects in other classes.

Now, there's nothing wrong with challenging seminary classes, because many students don't take it seriously. But his demands were excessive, and since it was our first seminary class, we didn't know just how excessive it was.

There was one day in which we had an entire lesson for the entire class period about how we should never call adults by their first name, or even just their last name--even if they asked us to call them by their first name. We must always use "Brother or Sister" or "Mr. or Mrs." But calling your friends' mom "Mom" was acceptable because it was a title. I understand the idea of respecting your elders--but to devote an entire lesson to it was a little ridiculous, and calling an adult "Sister" or "Mrs." when they asked you not to seems more disrespectful.

Once we had a lesson about fasting. He asked, "How long should you fast?" One student said, "Two meals." He said, "No, it is not two meals, it is twenty-four hours." Umm, a quick search on lds.org reveals that Church publications say two meals. I remember one conference talk in which a Seventy said "Two meals or twenty-four hours." So even with your point of twenty-four hours, you can't say "two meals" is incorrect, and in fact it looks like two meals is the more doctrinal one. "Two meals" may be easily misinterpreted, but it isn't wrong.

Occasionally we would write essays in class, and he would edit our papers when he gave them back, although we weren't graded on the grammar. However, he said that serial commas (also known as the Oxford comma) were incorrect, because a college professor had told him they were. Um, no. It depends on the style, but according to The Chicago Manual of Style, the most common style in the U.S., they say you should use them. They aid clarity. As a seminary teacher, he had no right to insist on not using those commas, especially when he was wrong. 

I remember one day when he passingly mentioned he didn't believe in dinosaurs. That seems so absurd to me that now I'm wondering if he really said that. But I think he did.

Early in the school year, he gave a lesson about how to give a good talk. One of the things he said to do was to engage the audience by saying, "Turn with me to [such and such a scripture]." The First Presidency has issued letters saying you shouldn't have people turn in their scriptures during sacrament meeting. I don't know if they issued that statement before he gave us that lesson, but it's wrong.

Once during the opening hymn, Colby Johnson was just lip-syncing to the opening hymn, so Brother Heaston sat directly in front of him to intimidate him into really singing.

One day someone was saying the prayer and saying "Lord" repeatedly throughout, and afterwards Brother Heaston told him it was a great prayer. It seems weird to me to compliment a prayer, especially if he didn't compliment others'.

One day, he was explaining that he didn't like movies like The Singles Ward because they make fun of our religion. It's OK not to like those movies (I find them a bit ridiculous), but I don't think they make fun of our religion--they make fun of the non-doctrinal subculture of our religion.

This was the year that The Passion of the Christ came out. He was very adamant that you shouldn't see it because it was rated R and the prophet said not to watch R-rated movies. That is not doctrine, and there are multiple reasons why. I wouldn't have a problem with him saying why he didn't think it advisable to see it, but to say not to simply because the prophet said not to--which isn't true--was overly simplistic.

One day, we learned about the requirement in the law of Moses to put lamb's blood on the right ear, thumb, and toe. As an object lesson, he took a red marker and made marks on those places on all of us. Which isn't necessarily bad, but is definitely odd, and a little hypocritical since he was a big advocate of not writing on yourself.

I'm sure there were other things he said or did that seemed wrong to me. I'm sure there are other things as well that didn't strike me as odd at that time, since I was young in the gospel, but if I heard them today I would find them false. After a mission, graduating from BYU, and being thrust into the world of Mormon scholarship because of my profession, I could engage him in a discussion and prove him wrong.

Broken arms

When I was a kid, I broke my arm twice.

The first time was on an October morning in 1994. I remember seeing the yellow leaves on the chokecherry tree in the backyard. I was jumping on the trampoline with my brother David, and after being bounced, I landed on my arm on the tramp. I went inside with my arm hurting. I don't remember a whole lot about the day, but I think my mom knew immediately it was broken--so we missed my cousin Chancey's baptism. I remember getting a little pink bean-shaped dish in case I needed to throw up. At the doctor's office, I got some Halloween stickers. My cousins came and gave me a picture book about a kid and a tree house. It seems like my family asked me if I wanted any candy, and I said I wanted green frogs, but they couldn't find them so they got me blue sharks instead.

The second time was a March evening in 1997. I was jumping on the tramp again with David, but there were also two girls about three years older than me, Taryn Pay and her friend. We were playing crack the egg, where you fold yourself up and the others bounce you until you open up. I had been the egg, and I had been opened up. I was on my hands and knees on the mat when I was bounced up, and when I hit the mat again, my arm started hurting. It felt just like it did when I had broken it two and a half years before. I went inside and lay down on my bed, crying in pain. I remember Taryn's friend came inside to use the bathroom, and she saw me in pain. David came inside and I think gave me some ice. He was unusually nice to me. At InstaCare, I got a sling with Snoopy on it. At that time, not only was I not interested in Snoopy, I thought I was too mature for cartoons in general, so I wasn't overly happy with it.

The day after Easter

Well, the trio of Valentine's Day/St. Patrick's Day/Easter is coming to an end, so I'm going to remember what I can about the day after Easter.

2013. We were having FHE at our bishop's house, so I rode with Joel DeVore up to Bishop's. On the way there, one of the passengers was playing solitaire on his laptop. They were talking about The Onion, and I said that on April Fool's Day the Onion should run real news. When we got there, I admired Bishop's granite boulder, like I usually do. (It's inside his house.) When we left, I remember there was a discussion about dubstep. I was impressed with Google's treasure map theme, and I appreciated the Delicate Arch and Salt Lake Temple pictures they put on the map.

2012. I needed to do some grocery shopping, since I hadn't done it over the weekend. For some reason I went to Shopko, and I was surprised to see they already had patriotic Tootsie Roll Pops and Tootsie Rolls. I went over to Buy Low Market, where I had never been before. I could see why, because their oranges, while very cheap, were moldy. I remember seeing a lady buy a bunch of clearance Easter M&Ms, but I didn't because they were out of season.


2011. I would have driven back to Provo. I remember lying on my bed, looking at things and listening to music. My new roommate Nate Gardner came in and said hi to me--it seemed like he knew who I was from high school, but I didn't know him. I was doing situps and watching some Peanuts specials, when both my new roommate Chase Elwood and, at another time, my roommate Zach Zimmerman came in. Zach came in right at the scene in It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown about which I had shown him a YouTube video that showed that the audio was backwards.


2010. I went to my math class, and another student asked what conference talk was my favorite. I said I liked Elder Holland's; he said it wasn't his favorite, as it was another pornography talk.

2009. I'm not sure, but it's possible this was the day we called a member of the ward to give us a ride, since the other elders for some reason couldn't give us one, and the member came in his pickup truck, and he had expected us not to be dressed up, since it was P-day (even though we were required to wear our proselyting clothes when we were in public). He thought that if we weren't dressed up, we could ride in the back of the truck--which was also against the rules. I moved some papers over on the seat to make room in the cab, and he said the papers were very important to him. I assured him I would be careful. I don't think we called him again.

2008. I remember eating most or all of the fake chocolate ("mockolate") bunny that Sister Welsh gave me.

2006. I remember coming home from school and seeing that my family had gone shopping at Kmart. They got clearance Easter toys, little eggs that would spin around after you pulled the cord out. They also bought the movie A Boy Named Charlie Brown. I watched it, and I remember thinking that maybe it had a message for me, since I would be in the French spelling bee the next day.

2004. I had to turn in the Isaiah assignment that my terrible seminary teacher made us do. (Seriously. That guy should have been fired.)

2001. There had been a teacher strike earlier in the year, so we had to go to school on this day, even though normally it would have been a day off. There weren't many students there; I remember Mr. Unger (who I think was acting as a secretary at that time) was saying he could only remember one other day in all his teaching with such low attendance. My mom wasn't happy that I went to school that day.

2000, or 1999. It was on one of these years when I was in the kitchen trying to make a deviled egg (or maybe egg salad) and somehow I made it awful. While I was eating it, my mom's friend Jackie came over.

1998. My mom picked me up from my cousins' house. We went to Sam's Club, and I was talking about how early I wanted to go to bed that week, because I was super tired; I said I wanted to go to bed early on Friday, but she told me Sabrina the Teenage Witch would be on. We saw my teacher, Mrs. Fisher, at the checkout, and I was so tired I could hardly talk to her.

Good Friday

Easter is this week, so I will remember the things that happened two days before the holiday.

2013. I was taking a girl in my ward whom I home taught, Kayla, to the airport, so I parked over by her place and helped her load her suitcase in my car. We took off, and I was at a stop sign, waiting to turn left. Eventually I turned, and Kayla screamed. Another car was coming and honked--I hadn't seen them. I felt dumb the whole way for having done that. At one point I asked where Kayla got her mission call to--she said she hadn't even finished her papers. I felt dumb because I should have known that; I just got confused because so many girls were going on missions. We talked about the band fun. and I said I didn't like them; Kayla said she didn't like the lyrics of "We Are Young" but it was so catchy. We talked about little kids (since she was an el-ed major) and she told a story of a little kid saying there were bugs in raindrops (because he learned water could condense around bacteria in the atmosphere). My GPS confused me and I got off at the wrong exit, but it got me back where I needed to be and I was able to take off my sunglasses, since it was then dark. I went home and my mom had put a new Easter DVD on my bed. I asked if there was any candy I could have, but there wasn't. I went in her room while she cleaned and watched The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town, and then I went downstairs and watched Here Comes Peter Cottontail. I stayed up late writing a memory post, and my dad came home.

2012. I went to the library, and the computer I was working on on the second floor had all the settings really big. I bought a package of lavender-colored Hostess Sno-Balls. In my editing class, our teacher brought us Irish cheese that she loved and gave us apples. I tried a bit of the cheese, but I hated it, so I stuck to the packaged apples. I remember watching It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown while eating my second purple Sno-Ball. Here is my journal entry for the day:
"Today it was snowing! But it was gone by the afternoon. I got my semantics collection back and got good comments. In editing today none of the members of my group were there, so I got a bag of apples to myself. I got 88% on my geology test. I had a successful run, and tonight I made dinner, watched "It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown," and finished my logical fallacies assignment."

2011. We left Las Vegas and drove home. This might have been the day we were listening to my Owl City and Coldplay CDs. My mom looked in her CD case and said, "This one is for Pops"--it was a CD, "Funny Favorites," that she had bought for me for Valentine's Day in 2006, but I didn't like it so I gave it to her. It was a CD of annoying old songs. When "Purple People Eater" was playing, Matt said his mom always used to play it. During the song "Tiptoe through the Tulips," the CD began skipping a lot, and I was relieved for an excuse to say "Time for a new CD!" We stopped at Burger King in Fillmore, and Taylor Swift's "Mine" was playing over their sound system. That led Susanne to talk about how T-Swift had an apartment in Nashville, and Matt said she was stalking her for knowing that.

2010. I baked Easter M&M cookies to take to my mission reunion. I left some of them in the oven a little too long, so I didn't take the burned ones to the reunion. I listened to Handel's Messiah in the car. I showed up at the stake center by the Draper Temple, where the reunion was being held. My companion Elder Chun was visiting from California; he was surprised to see me, and he came over and picked me up. I was wearing brown corduroy pants and an orange hoodie. I was talking to President Clark, and he was impressed that I had make cookies if I was living in an apartment, which didn't seem unusual to me. He had bought a cake from Costco with a bunny on it, and he was dismayed when he realized it said "Happy Birthday"--he thought it had said "Happy Easter." But it was still Eastery enough for me to eat it. Before I left, someone dumped all the cookies (since lots of people brought cookies) into one bag, so I couldn't take mine home. I left, and it was snowing and really windy. I called my mom to see what the weather was like at our house, but she said it was fine. I got lost trying to get to the freeway, and I couldn't see the lines on the road because it was dark and wet. When I got home, I went downstairs to watch It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown, and while I was putting in the DVD, I was singing "All We like Sheep."

2009. We were teaching two boys, ages 8 and 9, and we were often impressed by their profound questions. Michael, the 9-year-old, asked this day why we celebrate Easter with eggs and bunnies. I told him it was a very good question. I can't remember what I told him. This is my journal entry:
"Today we actually were able to teach both the Youngs and the Williamses. The lessons went all right. We're hoping they will all show up for the Easter activity tomorrow so we will have a valid reason to attend. Michael Williams asked good questions, like why do we have Easter for Christ's resurrection with eggs. We've also been running into all sorts of crazy people while tracting, so it's good when we find some normal ones."

2008. We left early in the morning to drive up to our zone conference. It was snowy, and I remember pulling out my camera and narrating our drive. There had been a running gag that our zone leader, Elder Gammon, had cottage cheese skin, so I brought a cottage cheese container for him, but he was distracted looking for something. One of the new missionaries was Elder Wilson (who would later be my companion), and when we left, Elder Condie said bye to him, even though he didn't know him. I think this was the time that the Relief Society ran out of food for us, so President Clark didn't get any. Elder Condie got some packages from someone in a previous area. One of them was a St. Patrick's Day package that had been delivered to the wrong Elder Condie, so it was late. After conference, we went to the church, because Elder Condie was lazy and ruined those three months of my mission. That night we visited the Vaughans, and they had a two-year-old granddaughter visiting, who was saying funny things like "pretty sure" and "keep your hands to yourself."

2007. We went to a park in Nashville, and there was a train in the park. Preston would get mad at us and yell "No!" when we got near to it; apparently he had been trained not to go near trains. But that didn't stop him from touching it himself.

Allie was swinging, and I would give her a few pushes on the swing, then I would run over to swing myself. We saw Nashville's Parthenon. We went back to David's apartment to color eggs; after doing eggs, the kids took baths. It was snowing outside, and we were surprised it was snowing in April in Nashville. 

2006. It was our last full day in Moab, and we went to different places in national parks. When we got back to our trailer, we watched It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown on my little DVD player.

2005. I didn't have school, and we got our Easter baskets in the morning. I got the Easter Beagle DVD; my mom said my dad considered getting me Easter Parade but they didn't. I went and took a "nap" and watched It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown on my little DVD player. Allie came in with Preston's new telephone toy. It had a picture of a dog on it, so she pointed to it and said, "Woof!" It was the first time I knew she knew what a dog said. That night we colored eggs (I think Easter Beagle was on TV), and I was eating an egg-shaped Tootsie Roll Pop. 

2004. We went down to Fillmore to go to the sand dunes. Ya-ping and I slept in Grandma Judy and Grandpa Boyd's camper. 

2003. I probably ate a popsicle.

2001. I got the card game Blurt! in my basket, and my mom said we could take it in the car on the ride to Fillmore the next day, but she said my cousin Joey (who was going with us) might not like playing it.

2000. My mom and I went to Provo to help David move out of his apartment. We loaded up all his stuff in our car, and my mom said he would be sad because he would probably never see his roommates again. We went to Walmart and got jelly beans, and when we got home I put them in a bowl on top of our TV. 

1999. My cousin April was visiting, and this might have been the time she joined me in watching The Simpsons in my parents' room--it was an episode that I don't think was appropriate for a ten-year-old. My mom came home from shopping and I wasn't allowed to look in the bags she brought.

1998. We had all the cousins over for an egg hunt (after some of them had spent the night). My mom and aunt hid the eggs all over outside, and they explained how many eggs everyone was allowed. My mom said there were Skittles, and Sue repeated her, but there were no Skittles; I think they meant Starbursts. They told us there were small, medium, and large eggs and told us how many of each we could have. Rick Gildersleeve was helping Rhys find eggs. He found a medium one, and he asked me if it was a small one; I thought, if he thinks that's a little one, how big does he think the big ones must be? After everyone left, my parents brought out our Easter baskets, and I was disappointed to have them given to us in the evening. I got a little Tweety Bird thing that you connected to the water faucet and it acted as a drinking fountain.

1995. I awoke to snow covering all the tulips outside. My cousin Tammy had spent the night at our house, and my Thompson cousins were coming over for an Easter party. Tammy played the "Fluffy Bunny" song from the Picture Book of Songs. Some of the candy we had were Sweetarts ducks and bunnies.

Three days before Easter

Easter is in two weeks, so I'm going to remember what I can about the Thursday before Easter.

2013. I remember a few things, but my journal entry for the day sums it up just as well:
"Today I studied out in the sun and caught up on EME [Early Modern English] readings. I went to the JFSB courtyard and sat at a table, and a jumping spider was on the table. It kept staring back at me. I worked in the library on my source check; I'm almost done.

"Tonight I went to the temple. I called mom, but she couldn't talk because she was introducing Jackie to Jan Terri. Then I went running. My route got changed since there was something going on near the field house and because there was construction on 900 E. Then tonight I watched It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown."

2012. We had an upcoming test, so we went to class for a test review. Normally, when a professor doesn't show up, it's a good excuse to leave, but since it was a test review, we wanted him there. So after waiting a while, I went to go find him. I didn't know how the geology offices worked, so I went up to the secretaries and said, "Is Dr. Nelson in here?" They said, "Is he supposed to be?" They told me where his office was, so I went over and knocked on his door. He opened and I asked if we were having a review. He went "Oh no!" His alarm apparently didn't go off. I grabbed a drink at the drinking fountain before I followed him back downstairs, and he walked into the classroom with a sheepish look on his face. My journal entry basically says what I just said:
"Today I slept in until almost 10:00. I went to class. In Geology Professor Nelson didn't show up. I went to the Geology department and found out his office wasn't in there. They told me where it was, so I went and knocked on the door. Apparently he had turned his alarm off and lost track of time. If it hadn't been a review, we would have left. I made Hawaiian haystacks for dinner."

2011. It was spring break with my family, and we drove to the LaBrea tar pits. We looked at all the stuff in the park, and then we went in the museum. When we were walking in, a hobo was outside, singing some song about Minnie and Mickey (since Allie was wearing a Minnie Mouse hat) and said "hice" as plural of "house" to rhyme with "mice." Then he said, "Do you know that if something has less than four legs, you add s to make it plural, but if there's four or more, you make it -ice? That's why you have lice and mice but spouses and houses. It's the most obscure rule in the English language." (Today I would have said to him, "No, that's not the rule, it has to do with their etymology, because in Old English they had different inflections.") I was disappointed that despite the museum's insistence that there were no dinosaurs in the tar, they had lots of dinosaur things in the gift shop, likely reinforcing misconceptions. I liked looking at all the fossils, and Matt, Nan, and Allie all seemed anxious to leave. I was amused by the warning sign on the door of their courtyard.

We left, and when we got back to our car, someone had put their bumper up directly touching ours, since we had a big car and were slightly sticking out. We laughed that they had a ticket. Matt said we should take it and make them get a bigger fine, but we didn't. While driving through cities, Nan pointed out a rainbow store, and I saw a sign that said "Facebook cigarettes"; Matt said it was probably because Facebook is addicting. We drove out of California and stopped at McDonald's for lunch. Our destination was Las Vegas, for some reason. When we got there, we checked in at our hotel and went out to the strip, for some reason. We had dinner at Rainforest Cafe. Our waitress asked where we were from, and when we explained, she asked Allie, "You know that big castle-y building,"--my mom prompted, "the temple"--and the waitress said she was married there. My mom said they were married there too. Then that led to a conversation in which Allie said to Matt "You're not Mormon," and my mom said, "We'll get him one day," to which Matt said, "Ignoring." After dinner, we went to the gift shop, and I wanted a walrus bouncy ball, but then realized that it cost $4, an outlandish price for a small bouncy ball. We went to the Coke and M&M stores. I was disappointed with the lack of holiday stuff at the M&M store. We left, and there was a girl sitting on a corner, playing an accordion and singing with an operatic voice. I think a black guy representing a church did some street performance. I remember crossing the street and hearing M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes," a song I had never heard other than on Pandora.

2010. I showed up to my math class, and one girl said to another classmate that they had seen Elder Holland walking past the JFSB. He believed it, but then she told him it was just an April Fools' joke. Our internet was down, so I called to get it fixed, and I had my planner there to write down anything I might need to know. When I told my phone number to the guy who answered, I wrote my own number in my planner. (I only remember this happened this day because I put it on Facebook.)

2009. We tracted the street behind the house where we lived, one that I think only had a dirt road. We stopped at one house where I noticed a JW flyer--their typical "Come celebrate the death of Jesus," the only thing they celebrate--and I always felt a little uncomfortable seeing JW flyers, because it meant people would probably be even less inclined to talk to us, having recently been visited by a religion. There were some frisky horses at this house. Across the street, a 20-something girl answered and we set up a return appointment. We went to one house where the lady answered and said rudely, "Yes?" I said, "We're the..." and she said, "I know who you are. Get off my property, all of you!" So we left, and Elder Kitchen waved back as we left and she yelled again, "Stay away, all of you!" Elder Kitchen said, "That's the rudest person I've ever met!" At the house across the street, the wife was nice but not interested, and she seemed sympathetic toward us when we told her what had happened at the previous house. I remember when Elder Kitchen called our district leader that night, he told him how I wanted the rude lady's house to burn down. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today we walked around which wasn't my favorite. We visited the Nelsons, in addition to some others. After dinner we tracted. Most of the people were nice, except for one lady, who demanded us to get off her property and never to come back. But before her we talked to a young woman who wants to ask us questions so we're going back on Saturday. We also met Dave Smith, a less-active member whose records are not on the list."

2008. What I remember about the details in the journal entry below are that Brother Coats lived in a house next to the Little Spokane River, and I gave an Easter spiritual thought, and that Sister Berger said she had done alterations for missionaries before.
"The first day of spring was a cold one, with snow and hail ruining our car cleaning. We met with Duane and Vickie who are still excited. Then we met with Richard Swinkels, who might come to church, then Brother Smith took us to Subway, then to see Brother Coats, a less-active widower, then the Bergers, but only Sister Berger was there.  

2007. We were in Tennessee, and this might have been the day we went to some kind of museum during the day. We had some Reese's Pieces eggs, which Ya-ping wanted to keep hidden from Preston.

2006. We were in southern Utah for spring break, and this may have been the day we were driving around in Canyonlands.

2005. This might have been the day when in my math class, one of my classmates shared some of the chocolate bunny her grandma had given her. Ms. Jordan said, "This is good chocolate!" Although I liked it, I could tell it wasn't really quality chocolate.

2004. It was spring break, and I'm sure I would have read some of Farewell to Manzanar, and it might have been the day I might Easter sugar cookies.

2003. I probably ate a popsicle.

1999. This was probably the day we were supposed to write about our best Easter ever. I explained that the Easters I remembered weren't very good, so I wanted to write a story instead. I wanted to write a story in which I got a basket full of multicolored chicks and bunnies, but that seemed too cheesy, so instead I said I got "just what I wanted--pets," and I knew it was a terrible story.

1998. Our class went to see a play adaptation of James and the Giant Peach at a children's theater. For the peach, they had an orange balloon grow on a tree, and then they had a giant cloth-covered thing that was meant to be the giant peach. I thought it looked really bad. For the cloud men, they had weird jugglers who looked nothing like clouds. Then we got back to school and ate our lunches in the classroom; Mrs. Slagowski had a sandwich with sprouts on it. We watched Here Comes Peter Cottontail and we had promises of Easter candy. Logan Smith kept saying the Easter Bunny was coming, and Mrs. Fisher said there was no such thing. I think Logan knew that, but I was still surprised at her directness. When we got our candy-filled eggs, there were weird candies that were like Fruity Pebbles but they were hard candies. Mrs. Fisher brought some chicks, and I remember watching the chicks after school on the porch in front of the school, a porch that is no longer there. A high-functioning special needs girl, Heidi, was sitting on a bench, eating a hard-boiled egg she had gotten in her class. I think my cousins came over that night for a sleepover, and we slept in my tepee.

1997. This might have been the first day I returned to school after breaking my arm, and Tally Prosence was the first to see me, but maybe that was a different day. Our teacher, Miss Slater, brought her pet bunny to class. It had a name from its previous owner, but she just called it Bunny. We had made little baskets out of strawberry cartons, and during lunch she hid them all over the room. She had a few people search at a time, and I was in the first group (maybe because of my broken arm). I was the first one to find my basket. I took it back to my desk, but I didn't start eating my candy until I saw Nicole Nutter start eating hers.

1995. We got bunny-shaped marshmallows, and we watched Here Comes Peter Cottontail, but we had to stop it at the Christmas scene.