A Love Story in Snippets -- Introduction

***It took me some time to be ready to publish to the world my deepest self.  I think it's worth the risk.  So there will be some discrepancy in the beginning between composition and publication.***

October 5, 2015

Sometimes I get these ambitious ideas. Well, truthfully, I get ambitious ideas often. But sometimes they take hold when I’m saying my prayers or pondering the Word. As I compose this, I don’t know how the execution of my impressions will play out. But I feel impressed to write a love story, a real life romance, in small snippets that will fit into both my time allotments for composition and an overwhelmed college student’s time constraints for consumption.

My story is real. You will see my folly and youth. I will be exposed, known, and recognized as imperfect. These are not comfortable feelings for me. But there simply is no other way for me to share MY story. Sigh.

In composing this story, I have some idea of the essential elements. But memory can be kind to a mother who needs to forget enough while she sleeps each night to get up and start a new day! In order to be true to events and people, I will consult my journal as a research object. But my impression is that this story needs to be told from the perspective of the (more) mature person I have become. In other words, I hope to connect the young girl who started this journey and the wiser woman (I hope) I have developed into as narrator.

To combat insecurity, I have concluded with a question: who doesn’t love a good story? If I do mine justice, and I know how to call down blessings when answering promptings, my hope is that it will delight any who take the time to jump into it.

So concludes today’s correspondence and this work’s introduction.

Since you've been gone... October 27, 2015

...we're getting a head.

This is a special Halloween edition.

From Dad October 25, 2015

October 25, 2015

Re: Letter 47 of 3

Dear Riley:

November is almost here! It’s hard to believe. We’ve enjoyed beautiful weather in the mid to upper 60’s with evenings down in the 40’s to 50’S. We sleep with the window open and rarely need either the heater or the AC. The fall colors are now subdued on the mountains and occasionally there is the slightest dusting of snow on Timpanogos. What a beautiful time of year! The garden is still producing on some level and we’re getting some wonderful chard, beets and carrots out of the planter boxes.

Since the cold weather is expected to hit us the first of this week, your mother wants to get in as much biking as possible before conditions dictate putting the bike away for the winter. We took advantage of the good weather yesterday to go out to Highland and back. We visited with T and J for nearly an hour and were welcomed into their home with ice cold lemonade in enormous chilled mugs when we arrived. The total trip was nearly 32 miles and we averaged 18.23 miles per hour for the trip. What was sort of funny was that we passed a number of serious bikers with road bikes and all the appropriate attire. We’re discovering that serious bikers are competitive by nature. And one couple seemed to take particular issue with the fact they were passed by a tandem with both riders looking like they were simply out for a joy ride, which we were. A few miles down the trail, they passed us again and worked to put some distance between them and us. It was sort of funny to see the man looking back over his shoulder from time to time only to find that we were a little closer each time. At length, they succumbed to the sheer awesomeness of tandem power as we passed them once again. I was wondering what, if any, communication would be appropriate in passing since they seemed somewhat stung by the reality of what they were up against. Your mother just gave them a big smile and wished them a pleasant ride. I had two more gears to use and wasn’t yet winded, so we just pulled steadily past them and that was that. Your mother visit teaches Sister Y, who is a serious biker, and mentioned our experience with competitive bikers. She was informed that it’s extremely demoralizing in the biking world to be passed by a tandem, but two strong sets of legs and a pair of well conditioned riders on a tandem bike is a serious force to be reckoned with. We’re toying with the idea of a competitive race just to see how we measure up, but regardless of racing competitively we just love it and it makes a great bonding pastime in an already wonderful marriage.

I can’t remember if Josie’s favorite hymn was Choose the Right before you left, but we sing this more than any other song for FHE. Even when Josie isn’t song, she encourages the person in charge of music to pick this one. Well, we sang as a family in sacrament today, and guess what hymn we sang? I think it went pretty well. Elise accompanied on the piano and did a great job. Josie sang with gusto and warmed hearts with her smiles and contagious enthusiasm. We got a lot of positive feedback, but make no mistake…Josie stole the show. So adorable!

I’ve been thinking about your challenge of building the work in your area and had some impressions which might help. Perhaps by now you’ve come to the same conclusion; the strength of any ward lies in the members, but strong priesthood in the home in particular. If I were faced with a declining membership on account of inactivity, I would ensure that every priesthood holder received a personal visit from preferably either a bishopric member, or one of the priesthood auxiliary leaders within a short period of time. These visits should be coupled with genuine expressions of love, an invitation to each priesthood holder to share his conversion story, an expression of how much they’re needed, and an invitation to come back. I just can’t help but feel this approach would generate results far exceeding expectations.

Well, I have this feeling I need to visit some people, so I’ll take my leave. We are so pleased with your progress and the opportunities that leadership will provide. We pray for you daily and look forward to your letters and pictures with great anticipation. I did take your request of hearing more about my own mission to heart and will be going through my journal to find experiences which might prove useful to you.

All my love,
Dad

From Mom October 25, 2015 Join the Choir

October 24, 2015

Dear Riley,

It’s been such a big week here at home (and I’m NOT going to get shortchanged in my letter this week, so I’m starting Saturday night!). I hope you’ve had a good week as well.

Cambry was asked out on two different dates this week. CH took her to the OHS play Thursday night. They had fun… and have seen each other every day this week, pretty sure. He’s been home since July. Tonight she went with CP to dinner. I haven’t heard how that went because she ran off to a fireside and hasn’t surfaced again. She’s happy.

Let’s see… Parker took the ACT today. He feels excellent about the English, pretty good about the science, reading so/so and math… not feeling it. It was funny though today because he looked up his old test scores on skyward. He looked way back at the CRT and noticed that in 2009, when he was dropping out of life, he scored a 2 in English and math, but a 4 on science. This tells us that Parker can do science with half of his brain tied behind his back.

Parker had college day Tuesday. I laughed at myself because I always get teary in the BYU presentation. I guess that’s where I should have gone… hahaha. It’s getting real. It was also the end of the term this week and both Elise (who was sick two days before Fall break) and Parker (who you know) were racing to get assignments in. It occurred to Parker that he would have gotten more points turning his chem labs in mostly completed on time than he got completing them and turning them in late. Good thinking.

Elise is so sweet. She is playing the piano while the family sings in sacrament meeting tomorrow. She has duets to play with Aleah, festival is coming up. Then Cat Miller needed a partner, so Elise is playing with her. And then this week she learned Choose the Right to accompany us, mostly just tonight. Elise decided she doesn’t like the friend group boundaries and has decided to focus on specific friends that she enjoys. Smart girl. She’s in yearbook this year and loves it. And this coming week she has a concert for Treble Trios. We bought her black slacks tonight for her costume.

Aleah had a kite festival at Cascade this morning. She loved it. Sis B gave the girls kites back in the summer and they were the best kites there today, dependably flying out to the end of the string. Aleah has double dosing right now for reading aloud and it’s been kind of crazy with that extra hour of school getting everything else done. But she is very dependable getting her chores done.

Josie is such a joy. She loves her preschool time and is writing her name independently. She is sharp. I know this is a surprise to you. I made a craft at TW’s this week and had to leave without gluing down the fun stuff because my paint was wet. Josie had so much fun arranging it over and over again. She loves dress-ups, Frozen, and watching TV while I’m down at work. She still domineers G’s time. When P left the house Monday morning, Josie came down before 7 to say goodbye to him. She told me she missed having him around to boss. He totally spoiled her with attention.

Monday I took the girls up to Layton to see my mom who is recovering from her second hip surgery. She had a mishap a couple weeks ago, somehow dislocating her other hip from the previous surgery. She had to be ambulanced to the hospital and put under to get it back in. And they said it can’t do that ever again, the joint was meant to be put together only once. She had to be flat down in bed for days after. She’s at Legacy and while we were visiting her, Dad came and then as we were walking out of the room to go home, G Grandpa B came speeding in. So we all sat and visited in Mom’s room while she was out to therapy. It was a nice time.

I had book group this week. I have sad news for me: the H’s decided since their plane lands after the transfer meeting begins, that they don’t want to check luggage at all. So I can only send a little bit of stuff to you and it can’t weigh much or take much space. Sigh. I’ll just have to send a Christmas package. Do you have input on what takes priority with the H? Bike tape is the only thing I’m sure about.

Actually, I found that I was missing you extra severely today and I realized it was because my plans to get you day old sourdough bread, fresh apples, caramel sauce, granola, and nutella couldn’t happen. I know you’re fed fine and there are things there you can get that we cannot. So I guess you’ll just have to fill up on the things there you will miss when you come home. Anyway, I have one more transfer meeting before Christmas. I’ll do my best.

I made tomato sauce with uncle J’s tomatoes this week. I’ve never done that before, but it make quick use of a lot of tomatoes. Just apple sauce and beets left to do. I haven’t canned much this year at all…. rather be biking!

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Speaking of biking, Dad and I had a lovely bike ride yesterday. We biked up to T’s again, but let them know we were coming. Tommy made us lemonade and put mugs in the freezer ahead of our coming. They took the tandem out for a spin. Then we rode home. My sinus infection is clearing up, so I’m strong right now and we hauled. We averaged 18 mph on the way home. Road bikers don’t like to be passed by tandems… just sayin’. Yet, pass them we do.

Our song went really well today. We stood by the piano with a microphone on a stand. Josie stole the show, of course, but only because she was herself standing up there singing. Cambry didn’t sing with us so with Elise accompanying, we had only Aleah and Josie on melody, I sang alto, Dad tenor and Parker bass. We didn’t put much into it, but it still came off well.  You can listen here.

Did you have that baptism you anticipated? I hope so. Let us know how things are going, how you’re feeling, how things are with the other elders in your area, the weather, funny things you observe… all that good stuff. Take care.

Much love,
Mom

PS: The P hosted us on the spur for our picture. K said she saw Dad walking up to the door and thought to herself, "What's this guy selling..." She broke out laughing when she recognized his eyes beneath the beard and called out, "K, you gotta come see this." After the picture, which they stayed out and did with us, we ended up in their back yard. The swing was a big hit. We spent a nice hour together and I smile remembering.

PSS:  Here is Aleah's Reflections entry.  The theme was "Let your imagination fly" and the piece she composed is titled "Breaking Free."

Since you've been gone... October 19, 2015

...we're lumbering along.

This was Elise's choice.  The Pynes helped us with the set.  (And fed us apples and sweet bell peppers and sent apple cider for the road.  Sorry to make you jealous.)

From Dad

October 18, 2015

Re: Letter 46 of 3

Dear Riley:

I hope you enjoyed conference as much as we did. Something I think is going to catch fire is “ponderize”. I believe this has the capacity to transform the membership of the Church and keep their minds centered on the word, but also keep them ever ready to share the reason for the hope within them. Something a little unfortunate about this whole ponderize movement was the fact that the son of Devin Durrant went out and purchased a ponderize domain name for people to gather and network but also to sell ponderize merchandise. It just looked really bad, like the talk just happened to coincide with a money making scheme. Detractors were calling it insider priestcraft and Elder Durrant came out and apologized for the whole appearance and acknowledged the inappropriateness of it. Accordingly, the website was taken down, though tee shirts are still available for sale at the BYU bookstore. Notwithstanding, I still think it’s a great concept and it hasn’t diminished our enthusiasm to incorporate this into our day to day lives. Too bad it was somewhat tainted by a little thoughtlessness on account of a few.

How about that priesthood choir? I was so impressed with the strength and quality of their singing. Parker loved the experience and I hope seeing him on the screen warmed your heart.

The kids have been enjoying fall break and still have one more day of it. For me it passed without fanfare, as I still needed to report for work. However, yesterday your mother organized a family hike up to the Y, so the break wasn’t entirely lost for family interaction. Josie was such a hoot! She was fiercely independent and walked the entire way (carrying her backpack with snacks and water for all but a few minutes.) She conversed with numerous individuals and warmed dozens of hearts with her pleasant personality and generosity. We topped the hike off with a trip to the creamery for ice-cream and French fries and subsequently destroyed all prospects for more wholesome food for lunch.

Later yesterday afternoon we went to the High School to test a new concept for an air rocket. The body was nearly four feet long and made of poly carbonate tube. Uncle J had 3D printed some plastic pieces for fins, the nosecone, and payload compartment which I assembled into a functional rocket. The parachute deployment was designed to be passive release at apogee with a 24” canopy to bring it safely back to earth. Coming in at precisely 100 grams and based on past tests with the heavier PVC model, I expected it to possibly reach 600 feet and had high expectations for several successful flights. The weather turned rainy but failed to dampen our enthusiasm and we got quite wet before it was all over. Unfortunately, success was not in the cards. As a precaution, we had installed an inner guide ring half way down the tube to ensure proper alignment as the rocket came off the launch tube. This ring was quite tightly wedged into the tube, so we never considered the need to have it securely fastened into place. However, when the solenoid was released at 100 psi, the guide ring broke free from its position and slammed into the base of the rocket, shattering the body and fins as it ejected out the side. The rocket propelled upwards but slowed quickly from the drag created by the catastrophic failure in the lower region. With something like an airbrake in effect, the nosecone lifted from the body pulling the parachute with it which deployed at high speed and caused extensive damage to the top of the rocket body. What remained of the entire assembly settled gently to earth from an elevation of around 100 feet. Surprisingly, the parachute was in great shape with only a small tear in the canopy and all strings intact. All this happened within a few seconds with a loud report and pieces flying through the air. It was all very funny, but a little disappointing. We had a good laugh, and headed back to the drawing board.

Your mom is gradually recovering from her bicycle accident and has substantial bruising on one knee, her ankle, and her ego. She’s gradually gaining the use of her hand with the dislocated and chipped bone finger. Over Conference weekend we had an auto bicycle accident nearby. A couple was hit by a distracted driver who ran a red light. The woman was killed and the husband hospitalized in critical condition. Things of this nature strike closer to home now that we’re biking a lot more so we were already affected by the accident. I didn’t know until a week later that these people were good friends of R and KB and had just come back from an 800 mile motorbike trip the end of September. So sad! A moment of carelessness can shatter lives and lead to decades of regret. I feel sorry for all individuals involved and have been more cautious in my own driving and bicycling since.

Well, P just arrived for a visit, so I need to go. We sure love and miss you and pray for your success and safety daily. Work hard and stay the course.

Love,

Dad

From Mom October 18, 2015 In Progress

Dear Riley,

I'm writing in the car on the way home from the airport. We took P to the airport after a few hours together and got stuck in traffic, stand still, and he missed his flight. So we're bringing him home with us. I'm not sure how well I'm going to do with this letter. I'm a little frazzled.

The kids are in fall break. I took the girls clothes shopping Thursday. Aleah has grown to a size 12. Amazing.

I got the idea to hike the Y again as a family and we fit it in yesterday. It was so fun. I had this realization that there will be one hike when Josie is hiking my pace comfortably, maybe in a couple years, and then suddenly all my kids will be blowing past me. It wasn't comfortable to think of that.

Josie hiked all by herself. She even carried her own water, snacks, and snacks to share. Impressive. She is a happy hiker. She said early on that she was going to be brave this time. We told her we thought she was brave last time. She says, "Last time I was scared!"

Parker got terrible blisters on the bottom of both heels running down the mountain.

But we stopped and got ice cream at the creamery and then French fries too. I smile remembering.

For the picture this week, we went through all of our 20 dollar store latex gloves before we even took a shot. So I didn't post or send anything out. My mom called me all panicked Tuesday morning: are you ok? There was no picture!

And I taught a class in RS Wednesday night about easy, quick costume ideas. (Go figure) People were really worried because they hadn't seen a picture. Dad picked up industrial strength gloves and we got 'er done Thursday. Phew! This project is definitely breathing on its own.

I got treated for a sinus infection earlier this week. I'm feeling much better, but not yet clear.

HG was married this week and Dad I attended. It was sweet. Dad gave a wonderful talk before the ceremony and then the Stake President, who the groom had been counselor to, married them. It was touching to witness.

AS asked for pictures of you from your mission to share with the primary today when she taught about missionary work. It was good to go back through your blog. You've done some good work. Keep it up!

Almost home and I will be occupied mostly once I am. I love you so much!

Love,
Mom