Paintings of Women in the Scriptures by Elspeth Young

We toured the Joseph Smith Building this summer when we dropped off Hyrum at BYU. I appreciated the new art up on the walls and took many pictures. Here are three paintings of women in the scriptures by Elspeth Young. More of her paintings of women in the scriptures can be found here: https://www.alyoung.com/art/collection-women_of_the_bible.html

Treasure the Word (Huldah; 2nd Chronicles 24)

Waiting for the Promise (Rahab; Joshua 2)

The Blessings Afar Off
(one of the women sacrificed to idols; Abr 1:8, 11)

More descriptions of each below the fold:

2025 - other goings on

  This has been a year to punch holes in our walls. I've mentioned the fun with our plumbing. We've also been concerned about a crack from the house resettling (because of the plumbing issues, in part). A friend from church came over to replaster and to fix the worst of it. Another friend from church came over to put the sheetrock in after the plumber made all of his holes.

I did a lot of stagecrafts when I was in high school. So I'm good with wood and paint and such. I understand intellectually that sheetrock is a simple thing, and after watching some more experienced guys go at it, I agree it's something I could probably manage. They sure did it better and faster than I could've!

Jim Gentry has been my good friend and partner in professional development practically since we moved to Tarleton. This year he moved from being in charge of some faculty development to being a department head. This picture wasn't necessarily a going away party - our Scholarship of Teaching and Learning cohort was doing a poster session for their projects - but this would be his last shindig in his old role. Sure have missed working with him!

Family game night and fun at Six Flags. The boys love each other.

Thanksgiving and memories

We felt better prepared for this Thanksgiving than we normally are. Our home was cleaner and we had half the food ready to go before the big day. We even had time to play games while the food cooked! That was special.

We had three missionaries over for dinner. It was a nice conversation. Here's a pic one of the elders snapped of the four of us and one of them.

When we asked the kid what foods we wanted, the first answers were: pie, pie, pie, and ... pie. And after we figured out the non-pie foods, we continued discussing making a few more pies on top of it! So Nia made her three-berry pie, I made pumpkin, JT made the apple pie, and Joy made the chocolate pecan. Nia is hankering to make another berry pie and also a chesecake. Joy is thinking about baking another chocolate pecan (I'm spoiled!). We gave away one of the three pumpkin pies I made, but a FB video has got me considering a no-bake peanut butter pie..... I wonder about us sometimes.

We also had turkey (a la Alton Brown brining), mashed potatoes and my candied yams, corn on the cob, green beans and their casserole, croissants, deviled eggs, and Joy's crab cheeseball. We got the Christmas tree put up, including three trips to WalMart for more new light strands. Restringing the whole tree took up a good portion of my break! Nia had second Thanksgiving at her bestie's house the next day and JT got to spend several hours with friends also. The kids really got along well this week - like, the best they ever have. They've started biking/jogging around the neighborhood together and they are finishing up a chess match just now.

Hyrum enjoyed Thanksgiving with cousin Mike and Genevieve's family in St. George. We were thankful to chat with him during the week and on his drive home.

As he rode back with his cousin, I remembered a similar trip I took. At BYU, I enjoyed Thanksgiving with my Grandma Straw in St. George. Someone she knew was taking his son/grandson back to the Y and I hitched a ride with them. Somehow the conversation turned to the BYU Bookstore, and I started in complaining about it. Prices were so much higher than in the surrounding community but I couldn't go there without wheels, the return prices for textbooks were so low ... the usual stuff. The fellow driving tried to help me understand the economic realities, but I was not overly teachable. 

We finally got back home and I called Grandma to let her know I'd made it home safely. As she and I talked, she let me know the fellow I had been riding with was in charge on the BYU Bookstore. I was so embarrassed I was ready to melt into the floor.

It's so nice to have a few days off before the truly hectic Finals part of the semester begins.

Teaching Award

 Twenty-someodd years ago as a grad student, I had three major career goals. 

• I wanted to earn tenure somewhere. 
• I wanted to write and publish a book in my discipline. 
• I wanted to earn recognition for my teaching.

I was very surprised to publish the book before I even had a fulltime professor gig! Thanks to working as a post-doc with Per Pinstrup-Andersen, our Food Policy for Developing Countries was published in 2011.

I earned tenure at Tarleton in 2019.  I have expressed before how fortunate I have been to work with the wonderful men and women in this department and College of Business.

Somewhere along the line, I added a fourth goal to someday consult for the World Bank or another top international organization. I have indeed consulted for the World Bank at their train-the-teacher program with the Eurasian Food Security Center, as well as for the OECD, the European Parliament, and UNICEF thanks to working with Development International.

Friday, they announced the winners of this year's awards. One of our finance faculty, Nina Rogers, had been very diligent in gathering materials to help folks in the department get recognized, and I knew she had put me forward for the teaching award. When they were announcing the winners, Leah said they had a Lot of applications this time around. After describing some of my accomplishments in the classroom, she invited the winner to do their best Price is Right imitation and COME ON DOWN!

I jumped up. I screamed. I waved my hands in the air and ran down to get my certificate. I was thrilled. This was truly a dream come true!

Reminiscing a little about (not) being DH

During Covid, our department head was called up to become associate dean. I recalled when I was interviewed in 2014, I was asked if I would be willing to be department head. At the time I had said yes, but give me some time please to get to know folks. Well, I'd certainly had some time, so I volunteered and was taken in. That happened about the time I stopped blogging (#not a coincidence?).

I think of being department head much like a calling at church. It's a service. You take it up for a time, do the best you can, then return to normal life when you are released. Folks take turns bearing the weight. Somebody's got to do it, and my (brief, unscientific) observations lead me to believe that I do a passable job with lower mental/emotional costs than it would give many others.

I gotta say, I really enjoyed the first two years or so of my term in office. Dean Shao was an outstanding mentor who gave me some clear expectations early on that happened to fit very well with my predispositions. The other department heads, associate deans, and I got along really well. Several said they had never been in a group as well-functioning and happy as ours. We laughed a lot and we made good progress together. The college became AACSB accredited, for one thing!

The faculty in the Accounting, Finance, and Economics department have all been wonderful to work with. I admire them. I trust them. They, each of them, care about the students, take pride in the work they do, and are reasonable people to work with who rarely let ego get in the way. Both I and the fellow who followed me as interim DH said we were willing to do this because the department really is filled with wonderful people. The three women who worked as administrative assistants for the department were a delight and I appreciated everything they were able to do for the students, the department, and me. Really, a great group of people to work with!

One part of the job I did not expect to love as much as I did was interviewing and hiring new faculty. When they came up for a fly-out interview, I told them that I wanted to conduct things as if they were the one we were going to hire, and it was my job to help them. Taking that attitude made otherwise awkward interactions much more gratifying! I appreciated each of the folks we interviewed and I am so pleased about the folks we did eventually hire. I think they are genuinely great hires and I have every confidence in them.

Joy and the Accidental Miracle

Joy was driving to the Dallas temple in the very early morning tenish days ago (as we start writing this post). She was nearly at the temple, still on the freeway. She saw a chunk of metal on the road ahead, but there were cars to either side of her, which made avoiding it rather difficult. It attached itself to her car's underbelly and she dragged it for some distance until she was able to get it dislodged and move to the side of the road. She parked on a narrow shoulder and started calling people.

J: After I pulled over, the first thing I did was see if I could put it in gear again. It wouldn't even rev, which meant it wasn't really in gear. It was more like in neutral.

She called her temple coordinator first, to let them know she might be a little late. She called me next, and I had woken up by that point to get her call as soon as it came in. She reported that she was okay, no injuries, and not even particularly rattled. I was very impressed with how calmly she was taking the situation. But it sounded quite clear that she could not continue driving just now.

After me, she called a friendly tow truck, that took her first to a mechanic who said he couldn't repair that.

J: That's when I saw - because the mechanic looked underneath - all three of us could see that the transmission was hanging down that had been broken off of the casing. He only repairs them, but that one needed to be replaced. So the tower took me to another place that was recommended by the first place.

They hadn't opened just yet

J: So I had my key, we left the key at the gas station next to it

Because there was no room for them at the inn

J: I mean, really, all the parking was stuffed with cars in different directions! Like, on their property there was no space. We could maybe fit the nose of the tow onto the property.

And then the tow drove her to the temple, which was only a few miles away. She called me again from the temple, and we spoke with tearful gratitude about her safety and now being at the temple. We both had the odd feeling that this accident happened with deliberate timing - that having something go wrong now was much better than it happening later. She was safe and completely uninjured. She felt peace!

J: I would go as far as to say that I felt joy bubbling up inside me.

... time passes ...

It's been three weeks since the accident. Insurance decided to replace the transmission, but conversation between them and the mechanic has been exceptionally spotty, so repairs haven't really started yet. We have been very thankful that we inherited my great aunt's car a few years ago and that one can take care of us. In another post we'll probably talk about how this week my parents drove up from California to gift us their car (same year and model as ours, but with 130k FEWER miles on it) (!!!!). We are indeed very most fortunate and blessed!

Nia and the Box of Medicine

Favorite song: Three Kobolds in a Trenchcoat

 Our dear Nia now has a small box filled with medications she is to take every day, and every day. The most recent saga began 4-6 weeks ago, when she got what we suppose was strep. The strep gave her a cough, which sounded absolutely terrifying.

N: It WAS terrifying!

The doc gave her some antibiotics, some steroids, and a new friend. Georgina is her medical assistant turtle. Put the medicine in the turtle, and the turtle helps her breathe. It takes maybe half an hour to very slowly breathe in all the medicine. Nia likes her friend, the turtle.

N: I wanted to dress her up in doll clothes, but Mom said no. It would be a bad idea because it would clog her pores, or something like that.

J: It shouldn't cover the filter anyway.

N: Yes, but "clog her pores" sounds funnier.

She was getting better during the week, just like she should. We were hopeful that all would soon be well. 

One week later on Saturday evening, she started to cough. She kept on coughing. She couldn't stop coughing. Anything we did to help her, seemed to make it worse. She tried one of the breathing medicines, and that seemed to make it worse. So we called the missionaries to help me give her a priesthood blessing. She had been coughing for 45 minutes by that point. The blessing told her that she would be able to breathe and commanded her lungs to open. Within moments, the cough had stopped and she was breathing easily and normally. She continued to improve over the course of the week.

One week later was General Conference. Saturday during the evening session, she started to cough. 

N: That was the one where I choked on the cookie! Of all the dumb ways to die, choking on a cookie is not how I want to go, just saying.

She kept on coughing and everything we tried seemed to only make it worse. I gave her another blessing, but this one told her the doctors would know what to do. Unfortunately, the only doctors available in the later evening on a Saturday, are in the ER. So Nia got her very first trip to the emergency room!

They got her settled in the bed and confirmed that she WAS getting enough oxygen, which was our primary concern. They gave her some medicine for anxiety and had her breathe some lovely mist using a plastic mask.

N: It was really hard to read my book. Really hard. Try reading a book when you've got something in front of your face! And reading through the mist was not the easiest either.

Nia talked to her grandmother on the phone, which always helps her feel loved and calm. They took x-rays, did all the lovely tests, and decided that the breath medicine had worked well enough. She could go home again. Here's some more breath medicine and two new steroids to enjoy. She seemed to get better.

N: And then the Fire Nation attacked!

She's running out of her steroids again, and felt her throat tightening and the cough starting to get just a little bit worse, in preparation for another wonderful Saturday evening surprise in two days. So Mommy took Nia to the doctor and got something that ISN'T a steroid. Several somethings, in fact. Nia organized them all prettily in a little box.

She's working on a Little Mermaid parody, centered around the idea that if you want steroids, she's got twenty!

Memories of ImaigNiff

We have a board game called ImagiNiff (imagine if). You write the names of people everyone at the table knows on a board. You roll a die to select which name comes up and draw a card that asks a silly hypothetical, like "Imagine if ______ were a book. Which book would he/she be?" or "Imagine if ____ received a prestigious prize. Which one would he/she win?" There are 6 options. Everyone votes for the one they think the most other people will vote for and score points accordingly.

We've learned we can't play this game with our kids. I tested JT on one yesterday and asked who he would have over for dinner: Mother Teresa, Mohammad Ali, Groucho Marx, or several others. He could identify Mother Teresa, but none of the others. It's a game designed for our generation and our common knowledge, and just doesn't work for the family. Since there are other games we prefer playing with company these days, we're finally letting this one go.

But once upon a time in Ithaca, we would play this with friends. I delightedly remember one game in particular when we all decided to put the names of a senior missionary couple in our church on the board. He was known for being a golf fanatic. If you could come up with a way to further God's work through golf, he was your man!

So one of us drew the card: Imagine if [his wife] had to select a way of dying. Which would she choose?

1. Peacefully in sleep
2. Hit by a golf ball
3. Fighting in war
4. Murdered by a jealous lover
5. TV falls into bubble bath
6. Overeating

And we laughed uproariously, because of course she'd want to go by being hit by a golf ball. It would ensure that her husband was with her when she goes!

As we were getting rid of the game, I found that particular card and needed to write down the happy memory.

Thoughts on Pres. Oaks' comments on the family

At the October General Conference yesterday, Pres. Dallin H. Oaks - now the senior apostle - described a few points of how family life has changed from when he was a child. To summarize, he contrasted how it used to be an economic necessity for families to have a highly organized structure, with all members pushing towards a common goal. There was much more family oversight of children, and therefore also time for real connections to be made and instruction given. In today's urban environment, he contrasted, families tend to be units of economic consumption, rather than production. It is too easy to treat home as a boarding house, where people share a common address to eat and sleep, but where children receive little guidance, direction, or connection.

In his comparisons, I do not hear him wishing that we all went back to those poorer times, but rather that we need to take proactive thought and consideration for how to create "consistent, family-centered" activities, to make time together, to create a vision of what we want our family to be like and work together towards those goals. 

I was a missionary in eastern Germany shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. I cannot recall a day going past when some middle+ aged person would recite the same litany of miseries East Germany had experienced since reunification, most especially unemployment (which was 40% at the time) and the lack of connection between neighbors. Under socialist rule, there was such scarcity that it was an economic necessity for you to know your neighbors and work together. If I had a hardware store and you had a grocery store, I might offer that the next time I got a shipment of nails in, I'd set some aside for you if you would set aside some oranges for me next time you got a shipment. With the arrival of capitalism, nails and oranges were in such abundance that being connected was no longer an economic necessity, and communities fell apart.

It seemed to me then that the solution was not to go back to the poverty and repression of the socialist state, where secret police without showing identification grabbed people off the street who were never heard from again, but rather to make deliberate, proactive choices to get together with neighbors and form community activities. 

In both cases, some very important things that used to be supported as natural and normal necessities of survival, fell by the wayside as the urgency for them fell off. "It is vital that Latter-day Saints do not lose their understanding of the purpose of marriage and the value of children." He urged us to follow Jesus' example by giving ourselves in service, and to create meaningful family activities that build family relationships and ties. 

Reminiscing a little about being EQP

Not-quite three years ago, I was invited to be the elder's quorum president here in Stephenville. When I was set apart, I was told this would be a "short" time, which I had interpreted to mean I wouldn't serve the full customary three years. I guess I did miss three years by 2-3 months, but I thought of a shorter "short" time than it turned out to be.

I was most concerned when I was called because I felt like I didn't know most of the men in the ward. I had been working with the youth for six years as seminary teacher and deacon's quorum advisor, and before that I was doing institute with the young adults, so I hadn't been with the older adult men in some time. I spent the first few months trying to get to know the men, their families, and understand what challenges they were facing so I could better adapt lessons and activities to their needs.

At the time, folks talked about how they also felt like they didn't know the other men in the quorum, so we spent time in the quorum sharing testimonies with each other and having small-group conversations. I hadn't really planned to be a "ministering president," but if people feel alone and like they don't know each other, well, going out and ministering to each other is one great solution, and it was something the Spirit kept emphasizing to me.

I'm really thankful for the brethren who served in our presidency. I'm especially thankful for Francisco Alonso, who stuck it out for the full 3 years with me. He did a lot of work on his own initiative to strengthen the Spanish-speaking members. His example throughout has really been golden.

I also appreciated Sister Dipple who took over playing prelude for me each Sunday so I could spend the time greeting everyone and helping folks feel welcome at church. It's not the most comfortable thing in the world for me, but I eventually grew to really enjoy and look forward to it. I'm very thankful she has agreed to keep on playing prelude so I can keep greeting people, even though I'm not in the presidency anymore. It's important to me that everyone know that we legitimately and honestly care about them, not "just" because it started because I wanted to do it as part of my calling.

When the stake president told me about my release a few weeks ago, he assured me that we had done a really outstanding job together. He also mentioned that it might be several weeks before a new presidency was called, so just keep marching on until then. Surprise! The release was made public the very next week as a new presidency was called. I hadn't even had time to warn my counselors!

I have enjoyed setting down the backpack. I was very quick to say to myself, "Okay, so I used to be responsible for doing that, but that's not my job anymore, so I'm just going to sit here with my family!"

Then today when I went in for my temple recommend renewal interview, I received a new calling instead, to teach Sunday School for the adults once a month. That's one of my dream callings just because I love teaching the gospel every chance I get. So I'm really looking forward to it. Bro. Harmsen said, "We couldn't leave you without a calling for long." I quickly reassured him that I already have one: I'm the organist still. And now that we have a choir, I'm the choir accompanist too, though that one isn't an official calling. But I'm delighted just the same.

What a week

At the end of last week, Nia had a bad cough and a couple strange symptoms. I talked to Dr. ChatGPT and we agreed that this was more than a usual cough and she should see a doctor on the soon side. Next day she was diagnosed with strep and bronchitis, making her asthma really bad. She was put on multiple inhalers and some other appropriate medicines. Her turtle nebulizer (seen below) is named "Georgina".

Nia and Georgina play Mario

Joy and I didn't get sick, but we spent the weekend SO tired and basically spent our time trying to prevent the infection from taking hold. We succeeded, but everyone's sleep schedules have been absolutely destroyed. We haven't had a single night when all four of us slept through the night. We keep switching between 8-12 hours of sleep one night followed by 2-4 the next and multiple naps and ... it's been a doozy.

... Joy happily corrects me! We all slept through the night last night!

----

A few weeks ago, we were voluntarily haunted by several "ghosts" - HVAC, electric, plumbing, etc. giving our house its irregular checkup. They identified a number of areas in the house that need improvement. We decided on a few that were high priority and set up an appointment for the plumber to come over. 

Our water pressure is way too high, so for $1500 they'll install a water pressure valve. Maybe some of the plumbing problems we've been dealing with for the last few years stem from this.

So the plumber pops in and says, yeah, we'll have to dig a 4' deep trench and replace the 60 year old rusted pipes outside so we have something to attach to. That'll run you another $5500.

He checks a couple more things, scratches his head a bit and says, Actually, it may be a LOT worse than that. With our plumbing luck, it probably is. Long story short, it is worse. So we're going to get an entire plumbing overhaul done this coming week for the internal water, and we may be without water for a little bit.

So to relax, Joy and I assmebled a couple wooden puzzles. Fun little date. How is y'all's week?

Big Family Vacation 2025 part 4 - southern Utah

Payson - the road not taken

Saratoga Springs

Fri Aug 1 was the day of changing plans. We had, like, four different plans for what would happen before the day came. Our original was to go Friday night to the temple in Payson and stay at a new AirBNB that night. But we got everything done in the Provo area we needed to early. So then I found temple baptisms at, like, 6:30am for the kids in Saratoga Springs, so we didn’t have to stick around in Provo for the whole day. We could do baptisms and while they were doing baptisms, one of us would come back and pack the car, then return to pick up the kids and head off to Washington. Then the night before we decided that was a mess and we were all too tired. Even the teenagers were too tired!

JT: Yeah, I wasn’t too tired!

There were 1-2 other plans in there somewhere. So this is what actually happened:

We got a baptismal time around 9am or so, some reasonable hour of the day. We packed up the car all together and went to Saratoga Springs. Hy and Nia performed baptisms and then Joy and I did an endowment session. I used the temple microwave to reheat our Brick Oven pizza for lunch. We tried to do some banking at AFCU to set Hyrum up, but they have problems giving checks to people who are technically still minors. #He’sOnHisOwn

We finally made it on the road to Washington, UT, in the early afternoon, which gave us a foretaste of what driving cross-country without AC was going to be like. Also, one of the rubber/plastic thingies that attaches to the roof of the car had a meltdown. For some time, it’s been coming loose on long drives, but only a couple inches. This time, more than a foot peeled off and it started slapping the car at high frequency – fwap fwap fwap fwap fwap fwap….

Nia: While I was trying to nap! It woke me up!

Got really old really fast! So we got some duct tape and taped it down, which had to be reapplied every couple hours because it melted in the heat and peeled off too! It was during this trip that we also lost a metal Chrysler side-strip, whatever it’s called, on the driver’s door. Just last week, we lost the one on the passenger side. I’m hoping this car makes it to a full 200,000 miles, but we’re at 197,000 right now and we’re driving it pretty hard…. Anyway.

Easter 2025

I care about Easter. I also care about Passover. On the years when the two celebrations don't line up, we spend a week talking about the children of Israel being freed from slavery, watching Prince of Egypt, and talking about how Moses and Elijah came to the Kirtland Temple at Passover to restore the keys of gathering Israel. We also spend a week reading about what Jesus taught and did during His last week of life, His atoning sacrifice, and His resurrection. We usually separate the sacred celebrations on Sundays from the Easter bunny and egg hunts on Saturday. This year we also bought an Easter creche.

This year, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints invited congregations to also make a bigger effort for Easter. Because of my calling at church, I was the point person for our celebration. We spent an hour one January Sunday as a congregation gathering ideas of what people would like to do, and it was pretty ambitious!

We set up a community service project, mostly involving the youth, who worked in a soup kitchen. On April 12 there was a miniature Passover Seder (dinner) for the congregation, and right after there was a concert where we invited musical groups from all across the community to participate and sing about Jesus and His divine mission.

Nia's Temple in Bountiful

A lot of people pitched in to help, obviously. I focused on the decorations for the building and setting up the concert. Different organizations took charge of a room which they decorated to represent an event from the last week of Christ's life or witnesses of His resurrection. Folks were encouraged to tour the building and experience what happened at that pivotal time. Starting at one end of the building and going around in a half-circle, we had:

• The triumphal entry
• Teachings, such as the parable of the Ten Virgins and rendering unto Caesar
• The Last Supper
• His suffering in Gethsemane and on the cross
• His burial and ministry in the spirit world
• His resurrection in the New Testament
• His resurrected appearance in the Book of Mormon
• His appearance to Joseph Smith
• Modern prophets and apostles bearing testimony of Jesus
• His prophecied Second Coming

Gethsemane

Yeah, it was a big to do! I really enjoyed setting up the art. Joy and I borrowed the plastic plants from work to set up Gethsemane, and she put together a costume to read The Living Christ - the testimony of the Twelve Apostles written around 2000. Nia drew a temple for the Book of Mormon scene. I put up large sticky pads with quotes and pictures all over the building. Lots of people put in a lot of effort to make it work. The missionaries set up a podium and flowers so it looked like General Conference backdrop for the modern witnesses.

Then we had the concert. I was emcee and also sang a medley of hymns that all fit the same meter. I sang them to the tune I know as "If you could hie to Kolob": I heard the voice of Jesus, Upon the Cross of Calvary, Welcome Home, and one or two others. Joy and Nia sang "Risen". A group led by an adjunct law teacher did some fun gospel music. We had a good 60-90 minutes of music and praise of Jesus from a bunch of different styles. It was a really good program and I am very thankful to everyone who shared their talents.

Joy: I really liked that each organization took charge of a different room. I was alone in my room. The missionaries helped do some of my setup, which was cool. I don't usually feel very creative, but I went out into the great expansive of creativity and didn't break my nose... It was nice to get to meet the people who sang. A couple people brought real palm trees, and that was cool! 

Big Family Vacation 2025 - Part 3 - Provo and BYU

[Derrill's narrations are in black, Joy is in blue. This is an excessively long post, sorry.]

Our AirBNB in Provo was an older home owned by a fun host who set up a scavenger hunt for the kids. The electricity did shut off in the middle of the first night, but we were able to fix it in the morning. Nia slept upstairs in an attic room with four beds all to herself. 

Joy: It was so nice to have central air. I think it was the coolest place we stayed. There was an AC upstairs that we needed to leave on all the time and the labels on the cupboards were helpful. It had a nice dinning area in the living room and some great toys and books for kids that we used latter.

Since our car’s AC wasn’t working the entire trip, such considerations were high on our list. Joy: We had our car checked before we left and the AC in the car had needed to be charged for the second time this summer in hopes of it working for at least the trip, alas.

Nia: They had a welcome sign that mentioned us by name. The scavenger hunt told us to find the rest of the letters and leave them a message in return. Daddy found the letters. I wrote “Thank you for letting us stay” and then put a smiley face using two 1s for eyes and a parenthesis for the smile.

Fri 25 – Today was devoted to touring BYU.  The visitor’s center gave us a tour, then I showed the family around the student center and library. Joy: We had scheduled the tour in advance and the cool thing about it was that it was on a golf cart, not walking.

We got Hyrum his student ID card, then Joy and the kids had lunch at home while Hyrum and I joined the economics faculty for lunch. I really enjoyed getting back together with friends and former teachers. As I gave Hyrum the rundown on the faculty, he was amazed at how many of them had attended Cornell. Joy and co rejoined us to tour the Museum of Art and explore the rest of the campus a bit more. 

Mary and co. leaving the cross

They of the Last Wagon. I particularly liked this painting, based off the tribute by J. Reuben Clark, Jr., to the forgotten, struggling pioneers in the back of the wagon trains.

A sculpture made of hangers

Delicate rainbows made with very thin strands.
Joy: I really loved that.

Something different

After finishing the last blog post, I asked everyone to do their daily chores. Hyrum commented that we were doing it “post post” because it was after the post. I noticed that if we did it after reading a blog post by our bishop, Kyle Post, it would be “post Post post.”

This entry then is the “post Post post post”.

Big Family Vacation part 2 - Pioneer Day

July 24 is a state holiday in Utah, celebrating the day Brigham Young and company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley and he declared, “This is the place.” Each city has a major celebration planned. We joined the Provo festival two blocks away from our AirBNB from 10-2 and then did fireworks in Orem after dinner. Joy visited her cousin Heather while the rest of us did the Provo festival.

The pioneer village and museum (always there) were both open and populated by folks in period clothing showing off skills like leatherworking and blacksmithing. The kids enjoyed a pioneer version of catch played with sticks and hoops. I was impressed by the hair art (pictued) – people would weave the hair of their departed loved ones to remember them by. At the museum, I noticed (on my mother’s behalf) that there wasn’t any bobbin lace, but lots of crochet. Apparently that was the skill the pioneer women took with them to make pretty things. I laughed about the collection of musical organs they had on display. One told the story of how they acquired it and the previous owners were happy that more people would get a chance to play on it. That story was next to a prominent sign: “DO NOT TOUCH OR PLAY.” More than half a dozen century-old organs and I’m not allowed to touch any. So sad!

Nia: I made a dolly out of corn husks! There were very few places to sit at the museum – one spot next to the bathrooms.

Hy: And the sign said you could only sit in the chair to look at the display case next to it. At every pioneer thing I’ve been to they’ve had that ring toss game and I enjoy it because I like sports.

Nia: I’m terrified to do that again because when I launched the hoop aiming at JT, it flew too far and went through the fence and broke! So I am afraid of doing that again in case I break the toy and ruin it for everyone else. I liked milking the bear.

<We all stare at her. She reminds us.>

One of the toys was a toy, wooden bear that had two ropes through each paw. By pulling on the ropes really fast, alternating back and forth, the bear would “climb” the ropes to the top. This was there to teach the children how to milk a cow.

Nia: So it was milking the bear! You milk the bear up the wall.

Hy: If I tried to milk a bear, I would sure milk it up a wall.

 

They had many games. Despite Hyrum’s great strength, the heavier person won each stick pulling contest.

Nia: Dad pulled Hyrum to the side to win, but I actually went up, so I lost with style!

We did a root beer chug as a family plus one guy we didn’t know. He won. I came a close second and the kids came close to exploding before they finished. That guy incidentally won the citywide root beer chug at noon.

Hy: So you feel less bad?

Yes. Only the winners of the “family” chug got to participate in the full contest. It reassures me that I could have placed better in the rootbeer chug than I did the pie eating contest. I mentioned to some of the other guys in the pie eating contest that if you looked to your side and see someone Way ahead of you, the winning strategy is to slow way down and just enjoy your slice of pie. Turns out the guy next to me was the clear winner, so I slowed down pretty early on and enjoyed it slowly, shared some with the kids. One remarked that they could see when I gave up. There were also food trucks so we could have something resembling real food too.

Hy: JT and I raced ducks. They have two paths of water and we both get a small rubber duckie and a straw that we turn so that when we blow down, the air shoots out forwards. We raced to see who could get our duck to the end fastest. Most of the booths gave prizes for participation. My real success in the festival was in the ring toss. It was very difficult because the bottles in the center were close together, and I got on in the back. They only gave prizes to actual winners at that one, so that felt like my real prizes.

A bunch of crafts were on display. I took pictures of this crochet dragon. We assembled a bucket, which is a lot like a 3D puzzle where you have to put the puzzle pieces in a particular order. Nia and I added to the crochet chain everyone did. There were wood carvers. Joy got a couple miniature pencil sharpeners (a grandfather clock and a grain mill).

Nia: I bought a tiny crochet octopus! There were some really cool earrings!

Joy: It was really cool to be at the pioneer park on Pioneer Day. Since we don’t usually get to be in Utah for the holiday.

The Orem fireworks were Very well attended. We couldn’t find a place to park, so paused our car in the middle of the parking lot and everyone but me got out to watch. An older couple had set out lawn chairs behind their parked car, so we were with them, knowing we weren’t blocking them from getting out. I tried playing some music to go along with the fireworks, but the kids kept asking me to turn it off. ☹  It was a very nice display.

We set off sparklers, poppers, and some flower-works at home afterwards and had a late sleep.

JT: It was really sad when the last flowerwork was a dud.

Nia: It was!

Joy: The fireworks were really neat. We haven’t seen a display like that in a long time.

Nia: The 24^th of July is like a million times better than Stephenville’s celebration of the 4^th!

Hy: I noticed the Y on the mountain was lit up.

The world needs Spiderman

Aunt May: I believe there's a hero in all of us, that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble, and finally allows us to die with pride, even though sometimes we have to be steady, and give up the thing we want the most. Even our dreams.

More than ten years ago, Joy was out for the evening, probably a Relief Society activity. I decided to catch up on my movie watching and rented Spider-man 2 with Toby Maguire. I cleaned and fixed our fan while I watched.

I had been in a hard place that week. I forget what was going on. It was just one of those times when it was hard being the Dad. 2-3 small kids, trying to get tenure, not feeling like I was good enough or capable or up to the job. I don't recall what year this was so I'm not sure what my church calling was, but chances are pretty good I was feeling overwhelmed about that too.

And I watched Peter Parker struggle. Everything that could possibly go wrong for him does. One by one he loses everything he cares about, all so he can keep on being Spidey. Eventually the stress gets to him (spoiler alert for an old movie) and he lets go. Throws his suit in the garbage. Done.

But he still doesn't get what he wants. Everything still goes wrong, and the world gets worse because there's no Spiderman there. Finally he has a talk with Aunt May, who tells him that the world needs Spiderman, and she says the quote up above. And he accepts who and what he has to be, because that's who he is and who, deep down, he really wants to be.

It thrilled me.

It gave me strength and courage to keep going when it was hard, and to look forward with hope. 

I bought the movie. It's sat in our collection ever since; hasn't been watched. Until now.

So Hyrum tells me he knows the Disney collection because that's most of what we watch around here, but he doesn't know the superheroes. We talk about which of the many, many movies he might want to watch and we settle on Spider-man 2 with Toby Maguire. Today's the first day of school for JT, so he's not home. Nia is out with Joy and I just finished posting one of my classes, so let's take some time to watch some more Spidey.

Hyrum Maguire?

We paused so I could get back to work just after Aunt May's speech, just before Doc Ock comes back to get him. And I look at my boy. My talented, smart, capable, honest, forgiving, noble boy. My amazing son.

And he's leaving in 10 days for college. It's a wonderful adventure. And I know, I know he will continue being and becoming someone amazing, someone who will be a hero in the lives of people. And I said to him,

"Hyrum, it's hard to be a person of great responsibility. Everyone has expectations of you. I want you to know that I know you will do great. And no matter what you choose, I will always love you."We hugged. I cry (a lot). 

Golly, I'm going to miss him!

I know that there will be days and nights for him when it gets really hard because he's going to do so much, and some days too much, and he's not going to feel up to all of it. It happens to most of us at some point. And I just pray, that on some night when when he feels that weight on him, God will send him something to remind him that there is a hero inside him, something to help keep him honest, give him strength, make him noble, and finally allow him to keep on going forward with pride, even when it feels like the cost may be high.

Who knows? Maybe he'll even find this. Excelsior!

Throwback Thursday - early 2025

Jan 19 - Three Watson boys getting ready for church

Feb 8 - Joy and I go on a golfing date in Weatherford,
followed by Chinese The mini golf there is very beautilful. You can almost pretend you are in California with palm trees and a very lovely waterfal.

Feb 23 - Hyrum let BYU know that he was accepting them just as they accepted him. Nia made him a cake to celebrate the Y in hYrum.

Feb 26 - Nia was feeling down about her hair, if I remember, so I took this picture to show her how pretty she looked.

Mar 6 - Our church building got a LOT of new chairs. JT, the missionaries, and a couple friends and I broke open all the boxes, got rid of the old chairs, set up the new ones, and cleaned up (Joy was there at the start). It actually took less time than I thought it would. The bishop told everyone to pick up some of the older chairs if we could use them, so we came home with half a dozen.

Mar 20 - Hyrum got some suitcases in very large boxes.
Nia decided to turn one into a robot costume.

Mar 23 - Elder Masaki (center back) ate dinner at our house on his first day in Stephenville. We were also the last family he ate with on his way out. We all liked him and he was emotional as he told us how special our family was. This was a goodbye pic of him. Elder Masaki really loved his large family and it was an honor to be included in his love for them. He couseled my boys as if they were siblings and we still miss him and think of him. Derrin says, "He was Awesome and was really good at pickleball!"

Big Family Vacation to Utah 2025, part 1

 Fri, July 18 – Left around noon, arrived in Colorado AirBNB. Lovely home, well-appointed, lots of space, but they plugged in air freshners Joy was allergic to. Four bunk beds to sleep in, one large enough for Joy and me. They provided breakfast foods and water bottles in the fridge, which was special and welcome. I cooked things up at night to be reheated the next morning so we could leave first thing. The kids were particularly impressed by their outdated technologies: a record player, a Playstation 2, and an 8-track!

Nia: “It stank, and we found four different scent dispensers in the house. We removed them but we’re sure there were more because it still smelled in the morning.”

JT: “It was really nice. I liked being on the top bunk for once. It had stairs”

Nia: “I couldn’t sleep because it kept creaking. But I liked the pretzel.”

 

Sat July 19 – We drove through CO and WY to reach Logan via Bear Lake. It was a small AirBNB: two rooms with large beds and one child on the couch. There was barely enough room with our luggage for us to walk around. The tree dropped a LOT of pollen on us. On the other hand, when I mentioned to the owner that we needed something, it was on our doorstep the next morning complete with four breakfasts from McD’s.

We stopped at the USU Creamery for ice cream. Nia stayed in the bathroom until her stomach calmed down.

Hyrum: “The ice cream was really good.”

Nia: “The leaves were sticky, so we kept tracking them into the house, and the couch was dusty so you had to go to the store to get a sheet. But they had funny signs decorating the house: ‘Welcome-ish, depending on who you are and how long you plan on staying.’ I was badly homesick for the first week.”

 

Sun July 20 – We attended church with Joy’s sister, Fran, then joined her and her family for the rest of the day. Casey made some wonderful French beef and we brought a pork roast for dinner. We got to meet Christopher and Anna’s baby, Cal. The kids admired Christopher’s sword collection. Joy wheedled Casey into playing Uno with us.

Nia: “He had throwing stars too! Plus a punching bag”

JT: He’s an actual ninja!

Hyrum: I really enjoyed spending time with Christopher. We played on the Switch and talked and played board games.

Nia: We played Boomerang Fu and Christopher got a caffeinated hot sauce powerup chasing a bunch of chocolate milks around!

We gave my brother the Trogdor board game for his birthday.

 

Mon 21 – We visited Joy’s youngest brother, Dustin, and his family.

Nia's birthday - #14

Nia turned 14. Her birthday was less than a month ago, so there is some chance we actually have a memory of some things! One of the nice things about giving Nia presents is that she gives BIG reactions of joy and surprise about every one. It's very fun.

Nia asked for a treasure hunt. We hid half her presents to find the day before and half to find the day after. We had couplet clues for most of them.

Nia: This is one of my plainest cakes in years.

She normally decorates her own cakes, but this year she just let Mom frost it and call it good. Mom made three different cakes in cupcake form for her to testtaste. Many of those were given as gifts to people at church.

Easily her favorite gift at the moment was a package of pen-swords. Swords of all varieties, hammers, maces. Very fun.

Nia: It's COOL!

The standing joke has been: "Which is mightier: the pen or the sword? You don't need to pick!"

She got a set of miniature Harry Potter cross stitch projects and made the Hogwarts emblem straight off. For those folks who seem to want to examine the back of a cross-stitch project more than the front, here are both. She did a great job! This was her second cross-stitch project ever.

Nia: Grandma gave me new shoes. I enjoyed them.

She's had one of three friends over for afternoon tea so far. More celebrations to come.