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.

JT's Birthday - #11

John-Thomas turned 11 years old in April. You can tell from the pictures, he is still in his "gorfy" picture phase.

Joy: We did an extra-long tennis time with his friend B____.

JT: It was really great. I liked the feeling of almost one year until I'm a deacon!

Nia: It happened. There was chaos. It was fun.

We had pies instead of cake for his birthday. That was enjoyable!

These pictures are technically part of our Easter celebration, but JT loved playing dreidel (out of season). He won! My new name is Joshua, the son of Nun because I kept rolling Nun.

Hyrum's Birthday - #17

Hyrum turned 17 this year.  These next few posts are mostly about saving some pictures.

We went to Pastafina in Weatherford. We wanted to do bowling, but the bowling arcade was packed for the next 2-3 hours and it was raining. We found another bowling place in Granbury to go instead.

He had friends over, as usual. Three cheers for Austin, who has come to each celebration for years.

Hy: We played soccer and ping pong.

Our ping pong table from last year died the death about a month ago. The remaining pieces were sitting against the wall, waiting for me to repair them or give them last rites. I tried. I did. Nothing helped. Then my parents sent us a portable ping-pong table and we were much more at peace saying goodbye to the old one. The new one is small, but has been loved.

A lot of Hyrum's birthday was preparing him for winter at BYU: suitcases, gloves, coats....

Happy Birthday, Mr. Tennis.

I'm glad you won...

When my father was a lad, he played games with his mother, like Scrabble. (John-Thomas says, "They had Scrabble back then?") She won. She won a lot. She taught my little father to say, "I'm glad you won. I'm sorry I lost. Maybe I'll do better next time."

Eventually, he "got gud" and he won. He won a lot. He taught his mother to say, "I'm glad you won. I'm sorry I lost. Maybe I'll do better next time." And then she made him clean up the game because he won.

In our modern day, Hyrum wins a lot of games. And I try to allow him the privilege of putting the game away. I explained to the children today why I do that and retaught them the mantra: "I'm glad you won. I'm sorry I lost. Maybe I'll do better next time."

JT - who is a good sport about coming in last many times - says, "I'm glad I won. I'm sorry you scored any points at all. Maybe you'll get negative next time." And he smiles and giggles.

Happy 4th of July!

We enjoyed watching 1776 as we do each year. Nia made a turkey, and it was one of the best we've had. We had the missionaries over as well who encouraged us to consider all we are grateful for, including our country. I enjoyed much less physical pain than I have had in a week.

To end the evening, we left dear America and went to medieval England for A Man For All Seasons. It tells the story of Thomas More, who is portrayed as one of the last honest men in a corrupt, power-hungry government. He refused to sign a loyalty oath, admitting the Pope had no authority to let King Henry VIII marry his brother's widow and therefore he was free to marry Anne Bolyn. He did not speak against the king either, so it took years in prison before someone came forward with false testimony to support his execution. There are any number of outstanding quotes from that film, courtesy of imdb:

------

Thomas: Some men think the earth is round, others think it flat. It is a matter capable of question. But if it is flat, will the King's command make it round? And if it is round, will the King's command flatten it?

------

• William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
• Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
• William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
• Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!

-----

• The Duke of Norfolk: Oh confound all this. I'm not a scholar, I don't know whether the marriage was lawful or not but ***, Thomas, look at these names! Why can't you do as I did and come with us, for fellowship!
• Sir Thomas More: And when we die, and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience, and I am sent to hell for not doing mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?

-------

Sir Thomas: I think that when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos.

-------

And let's end this post with a quote or two from John Adams, celebrating both men's commitment and integrity:

John: There are only two creatures of value on the face of the earth: those with the commitment, and those who require the commitment of others.

John: Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Courtesy of ChatGPT

Fossil Rim

Most summers we like to get season tickets for somewhere interesting and really enjoy it. One year (21-22) we did Fossil Rim, the safari park near Glen Rose, TX. We visited often and enjoyed each trip, but one thing we never seemed to manage was to get there first thing in the morning. This year, someone - I think it was the alumni association - paid for all faculty and staff at Tarleton to get free access for a couple weeks. So shortly before graduations, we drove down and really enjoyed seeing much more active animals than we would find in the mid- or late-afternoon in the Texas heat. (Go figure!)

One of our best encounters was the first and also the last. An ostrich came over, feeling very aggressive, to demand our food pellets. It attacked Joy through the window and tried to eat the toy giraffe hanging there by its neck. Joy tried to protect herself ... using the bag of food pellets! She quickly realized how counterproductive that was and closed the window. When we left the park again, the ostrich came to dance for us and snuggle with the van. 

Joy: I think the ostrich was trying to open the window so it could get to me.

Joy: Everyone that wanted to had personal encounters with the giraffe.

D: Often there is a long line of cars for the giraffes. They are quite adept at welcoming themselves inside in a gentle, non-threatening way (unlike the ostrich!) It was nice to have this one to ourselves for a while.

Turns out, 2021-22 when we had season passes was the last time we went to Fossil Rim. Joy took the kids to Fossil Rim a number of times while I had to work. Given that I wasn't blogging that year, here are some pictures from a couple of those trips too, below the fold:

Goals 2025

I tried something new with my goal-making this year. My New Year's Resolutions were a series of things I wanted to do more of, but without promising myself I'd do them literally everyday from now on. I posted five 3x5 cards on a wall and any day I accomplished one of the goals, I put a tick mark. Each goal had 14 days on it and once I got to 5 ticks on each day, that meant I accomplished the goal 70 times. 

We're very nearly half-way through the year (June 30 is 180 days). I've got 3 goals done (finished one today) and I'm shooting for a fourth by June 30. I've added some more goals in between, and each time I finish a goal I replace it with another. I also reward myself for every 7 days I complete a certain goal.

Most days I get to put 2-4 tick marks up. Once the kids are in bed, if Joy is otherwise occupied, the board of goals is one of the first places I go to figure out what I want to do next. And because I start fresh every day, there's no guilt at having "broken resolutions". I don't have an end date by which I have to have completed any of the goals. This is just something I want to work on and incorporate into my life more.

So all in all, I think it's been a good system. I've learned some unexpected things about how to manage myself in the process too.

My daughter, the singer

 In late April, our stake put on a special musical performance honoring the prophet Joseph Smith and his mission to testify of Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. The script was written by our stake music coordinator. Hyrum and Nia got involved initially, but when Hy learned his regional UIL exam would be the same day as one of the performances, he dropped out. Nia and one of us parents drove out twice a week for rehearsals.

The youth danced and sang and formed an orchestra and did the narration. It was really a very impressive event!

The family attended both performances. These videos come from the second night with two of Nia's favorite songs: Israel, Israel, God is Calling (as an upbeat fiddle song) and My Kindness Shall Not Depart From Thee by Rob Gardner.

My daughter, the dancer

Nia, formerly known as "Princess" on this blog, has finished two years of dance at junior high. Here she is performing with her class.

She is just right of center at the start of each.

Nia: We were sad at the end of the year when we found out our teacher was leaving. I may not be doing dance anymore, but still. She was nice. She cared about how well we did in class and helped us improve. I'm a lot closer to being able to do the splits now, even if I never quite made it.

A successful operation

Last week, John-Thomas went in for a hernia operation at Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth! I am very pleased to report it was a resounding success.

The doctors figured there was only a hernia. The ultrasound claimed there was cancer also. The hospital gave us urgent attention and from the discovery at his annual physical to the operation, less than 6 weeks had passed. The outstanding news is that the operation demonstrated there was absolutely no cancer to worry about at all.

When my parents came out, Dad gave JT a priesthood blessing. I gave him another the night before. Both of us promised him that there would be no longterm damage, that the doctors would know what to do for him, and that he would recover quickly. We are thrilled that these promises came true. My confession is that it took real faith on my part to make those promises - the doc had me convinced there was something that needed urgent removal, that JT would be there overnight, and that there was real risk of longterm damage. I cannot express my gratitude sufficiently to a merciful Heaven that this was not the case this time.

John-Thomas has been recovering very well. He stood in church and sang to the fathers with the rest of the children. He has been up and walking around all day today with very few complaints. To top it all off, he has been keeping up with his home schooling English lessons.

Joy: We have had so many people thoughtfully inquiring after his health. We have appreciated that.

20th Anniversary

Patrons of the Arts,
June 2023

DW: We are celebrating our 20th anniversary this year. Rather than having a larger trip, we decided to devote special time every day for a bit over a week, making 7-10 dates together.

Joy: We went for time together and for variety. Our goal was at least a couple hours together every day.

DW: We officially started with Pride and Prejudice at the Granbury Opera House. We were pleased to see that they still have their list of supporters from 2023 up, which includes us! 

Joy: We had some nice conversations with the people we sat near. When we first sat down, they had some windows on stage at really odd angles and we were thinking that was strange. The windows came down either at the front or back of the stage depending on if the characters were inside or out. It was really a good impetus for us to watch some more of the movie (Firth and Ehle). The love story seemed a lot more abrupt in the play!

DW: It got me thinking about the real challenge of taking a novel as complex and character-rich as P&P and turning it into something for 90-120 minutes. Some characters are just going to end up on the cutting room floor. And in this case, the growing love story between the two main characters was one of the casualties. Intermission ended, Elizabeth walked on stage, and said, "Well, that was a lovely six weeks in Derbyshire!" and you now knew we had skipped Lady Catherine and every conversation that would redeem Darcy in her eyes. But it's easier on the set designer! The letter shows up, telling us Kitty has run off, and Darcy happens to call on her whole family to learn the disaster. Lady Catherin did still show up at the very end.

Joy: I thought she did a good job. I liked how they did a flashback to the ball at Merytown, talking about what happened while other characters danced and Darcy insulted. I think they didn't have near enough of an idiot for the dad, which I don't see as an improvement. He's really supposed to be a comedian in the show.

DW: I was impressed to see Mary played for laughs.

Joy: Mary was done well.

DW: And Mr. Collins was more of a fop, less cringe, with his over-exaggerated bow. Mrs. Bennett was in too much self-command.

Joy: No kidding!

DW: And afterwards we got on the free trolley for a short ride around the square in the dark. The trolly ride reminded Joy of the Cinderella carriage ride we took after the family dinner on our wedding day.

DW: Over the 20 years, we have had to replace Joy's wedding ring a few times. She likes opals, but opals aren't really good at staying put in their ring setting. The first time we had to replace it, I hid her new ring in an unopened jar of Nutella. We opened it for New Year's and Joy was very pleasantly surprised to have a new ring.

Parents discuss graduation - part 2 - the graduation ceremonies

DW: By the oddities of calendars, Hyrum graduated with an Associates degree in Arts and in Sciences before he got his high school diploma on May 23. He managed both with a 4.0. For pictures of his Ranger graduation, see here.

Driving to his Ranger graduation was an adventure. Both Waze and Google Maps did not know where Ranger College's auditorium is! We ended up behind their football stadium and on a dirt road or two before we finally found it.

Joy: I really loved the talk given by their returning graduate, but Hyrum thought it was too long. That graduation was the first Real feelings for me, that this is really happening and he is really becoming an adult ... and probably my first feelings of him really leaving. Like, it all felt more real with the graduation ceremony. And when they awarded the diplomas and they say, "We now proclaim you" whatever, I was really proud of all the high school students who did this. What an amazing accomplishment! I was glad he was able to sit with friends on the stand because they had few enough graduates they could all sit on the stage. (Only graduates from the high schools and certifications were at that particular graduation.)

DW: It was a pleasant ceremony. It was packed. I wish we could have sat closer so my camera could get a GOOD picture. Thankfully, a friend at work had a better seat and she got shots of Hyrum by her boy.

Joy: His high school graduation was memorable because he was valedictorian, but I really felt the Solemnity of his Ranger graduation, the feeling that My Boy is an adult and I should treat him like one.

DW: My parents came out for Hyrum's high school graduation, which we really appreciate. It was in the brand spanking new stadium, christened for the event. I was surprised fewer people mentioned that fact.

Joy: The whole city came! It was insane! They only ran out of pamphlets/programs two hours before it started!

[Left: Hyrum is the tall fellow ont he right.]

DW: We got up to the second story on the far side of the field, and could see the procession leaving the junior high across the street to prepare for the march across the new football field. You could hear the clanking of all the medals the lead students were wearing. In our last post, I showed Hyrum's many medals. He chose to only wear three for the graduation in his customary modesty - one for tennis, one for UIL, and Valedictorian.

The salutatorian gave a good speech about all their graduating class had been through, reviewing the past.

Joy: I appreciated the details she gave about the class as a whole.

DW: Here is his introduction:

DW: Then Hyrum stood and spoke of the future, which you can also hear at the earlier post. It was a spectacular thing, seeing him there at the very front of the graduates in the first chair.

Joy: He saw us and waved when he marched in. That was nice.

DW: I was touched that he not only mentioned his parents, but called us by name. He didn't have to.

Joy: We were definitely stars in his show.

Parents discuss graduations - part 1 - the road to graduation

DW: We alsways knew that Hyrum was very good at math. He finished algebra in 6th grade.  Sometime around 2019, we were discussing and debating how we were going to keep up with his voracious mathematical ability and his schooling in other ways. One issue was that he just wasn't challenged. He was getting 100 on absolutely everything they handed him and he was bored.

One day, I felt a prompting from the Spirit that we needed to have him skip a grade so that he could be about his life's work sooner. Normally skipping a grade would have happened some years ago already. But now was the time. So we started gearing up to figure out how to help him get through 6th, 7th, and 8th grade in 1.5 years.

Joy: I did leg-work with schools, talking about what they would require for him to skip a grade. They mostly said, "He can't." I said, "Okay, if he did x, would be qualified for the next grade," making scenarios until I figured out exactly what they needed to have happen, because they weren't willing to consider it.

I worked with Hyrum to help him test out of some classes through UT-Austin.

DW: I remember writing homework and tests for him for 7th grade history.

Freshman Hyrum,
Sep 2021

Joy: And we did a lot of practice STAAR science and STAAR algebra tests at home.

DW: And then COVID hit, just after his birthday. He has often said that one of his birthday presents - over spring break, just as lockdown started - was not needing to return to school that year.

Joy: I don't think he appreicated that birthday present. He didn't want to do school online at any moment in all of his life.

DW: But given that strong push, we enrolled him in a public online school for 7th/8th grade. They worked with us to identify what classes he had already finished thanks to his UT-Austin tests, and he took half-7th grade and half-8th grade classes that year 2020/2021. Full credit to Hyrum particularly for one of his science classes that he did almost exclusively through YouTube videos from Texas middle school teachers! And he used that to pass the STAAR science test. By the end of May 2021, we all were able to convince Stephenville that he had passed all the 8th grade STAAR tests and was ready for high school a year early.

Hyrum's biggest concern was that he would be a year younger and a year smaller than the boys in sports, and that would hurt his sports abilities. It likely did make some difference, but given that he has always been tall for his age, the difference wasn't as bad as it could have been. He was in soccer for a year and then switched to tennis where the team was more supportive and he had more of a chance to succeed.

That time he scored a soccer goal and 
his team made a bridge to cheer for him

Sophomore tennis

One of Hyrum's choices and personality traits that I admire is that in the last four years, I have not heard him speak ill of anyone. He made friends in both the grade he left and the grade he entered, and he kept both ties up. He did occasionally tell us stories about what happened that day that had us raising our eyebrows, but no matter what anyone did to him, he called them friends and would help them and do all he could on their behalf. His willingness to forgive is impressive.

Hyrum discusses graduation and goals

Hi there. Hy here.

Dad: Tell us about graduation.

Hy: In the weeks leading up to graduation, people kept asking me, "Is your speech ready yet? What's it about? Are you going to use brain rot?" And all I had was, "no. I will not." Eventually I did get it written and I was mainly focusing on the future and encouraging people to be grateful for the circumstances that come up in their lives, no matter how good or bad they are.

(Dad: Here is a compressed version of his speech.)

Dad: Years ago you decided you wanted to be valedictorian. I'm pretty sure that while Mom and I didn't tell you not to, we weren't overly encouraging. I kept trying to convince you that 93% is an A and that's good enough. You went on to get valedictorian and a double associates degree anyway. Tell us about your dream.

Hy: At the end of first semester freshman year, that was when we would get our grades and ranks for the first time. I was like, "Hm, maybe I might be number one, but I don't know everyone in our class." I saw my rank, and it was #2. And I said, "Hey, maybe I have a chance!" So that became my goal, and I tried to make my grades so I could get the #1 spot.

Dad: What was the hardest part?

Hy: It was definitely junior year when I was taking AP chemistry and AP calculus, cause those are the two hardest classes in our school. I was up late doing homework most nights. But that year was also the year when I had the best grades and gave me a big boost in the race.

Dad: What was the best part?

Hy: In the week before graduation and after, just knowing I had accomplished something really great and folks were cheering me on. 

Dad: The glow of victory. What did you like about your Ranger graduation?

Hy: The cookies at the end. *lol*

Dad: Those were good. [Pictures below the fold are from his Ranger graduation]

Prince Hyrum, the Superstar gets ready to graduate

In May Hyrum graduated from Stephenville High School as the Valedictorian, and also from Ranger College with two Associates degrees in Arts and Sciences. In preparation for that, we took a lot of pictures of him looking awesome for his graduation announcement. Here are some.

A little teary today

 Why am I a little teary today?

• A series of stressful dreams for the last two weeks. 
• I woke up filled with a lot of fibromyalgia pain. Took a long time to get moving.
• I had a long conversation with a ward member about her family, wishing there were only something I could do.
• Another ward member suffering and feeling powerless to help
• Thankful for a couple brethren who told me about the service they were giving
• I bore my testimony in church about how our Heavenly Father communicates His love for each of us.
• 
  Took a lovely walk on a surprisingly hot day with Joy and Prince. We talked about Prince becoming an adult. Sometimes these days, it's all I can do not to just stare and stare at this nearly-grown young man. I am amazed at who he is becoming. I think of how dearly I'm going to miss him while he is at BYU. (As Emily says in Our Town, "Let's really look at one another! It goes so fast. We don't have time to look at one another.") 
• We haven't really shared this publicly yet, but someone in our home is going to need an urgent surgery on the near side. I spent the day fasting and praying about that.
• I didn't take a nap.
• 
  I worked on a new puzzle for a while and made great progress. (What does that have to do with feeling teary?) Well, I like puzzles because it feels like I'm taking chaos and putting it into a beautiful order, bit by bit. And I tend to want to work on them most when I'm feeling like I don't have control of things.
• We played Great Dalmuti, and all five of us enjoyed it! Helping everyone enjoy the same activity feels like a real accomplishment some days.
• As we read D&C 58, God tells His Saints that after the tribulations come the blessings. A child wanted to know why they had to do chores in this house, as if that were a tribulation and when exactly do the blessings come? I was likely too intense in my answer, and I feel bad about that.
• I'm reading these wonderful old blogs about Princess learning to say words and Prince discovering math for himself at age 4 ... before going off to BYU as a math major.

So, dear diary, that's why I'm feeling a little teary today, like, all day.

Return of the Blogger?

 Some time ago, all the backup copies of our family pictures failed. Computers and external hard drives all. I only have a very few of them saved on my work computer, and really only since, like, 2022.

I finally realized that not all was lost. I had this blog and our old one. And we have saved pictures! I shared pictures and wonderulf, wonderful stories. Over the last month I've gone from 2008 or so up through 2012, saving every single picture I uploaded and reliving all those early glory days of baby/toddler Prince and baby Princess. (Baby J-T had not yet arrived, much to his dismay when I start sharing stories).

How very deeply thankful I am for this old blog, for our Newlywed History, for Facebook, and for the scattered physical journals I and we have kept over the last 20 years of our marriage.

... and maybe I should try to get back to This Old Blog too.

Christmas trip to Disneyland, 2024
Joy, Princess, JT, Derrill, Prince