Busy season has hit our family full on for the past week and a half, and it will continue for the next two months. There is usually a partial sense of exhilaration and accomplishment associated with the start of busy season, and those feelings are there this time as well. However, certain circumstances at work are making this season especially trying. In light of that I wanted to write a few things about my family and other things that always seem to lift me up. I’m not the type of person that gets sad or frustrated when my family is doing fun activities while I’m working my way through seemingly endless issues late into the night (I realize that it is not always fun and games at home either; Summer always works much harder than I ever do at my job). I actually feel a lot better knowing that Summer and the boys are having fun together, experiencing joy, and are just plain happy. So here are a few stories that brought a smile to me recently and revived memories of so many good times from before.
The weekend before busy season started Summer and I wanted to make it to the Temple to recharge the best way we know how. That Saturday morning Summer went for a run at the community center and Coleson eagerly went with her. Coleson might have run about a mile before heading down to the basketball courts to watch some kids from our neighborhood play on one of the community teams. He sat next to KyAnn, who is a wonderful woman that lives down the street from us. When Summer came down after her run, KyAnn asked her when we would be dropping the boys off. Perplexed, Summer asked her what she meant. KyAnn replied, “Coleson told me you and Brian were going to the Temple and he asked if he and Ammon could come over to our home and have us watch and play with them. He’s got it all set up; so again, what time are you dropping the boys off.” Yup, Coleson set it all up, not much gets past this kid. That night we dropped the boys off at KyAnn’s house and they had a great time playing with everyone. KyAnn has a little girl that is about 3 ½ years old, Shayla. Shayla loves to play with Coleson, and when she was in nursery at church she would always talk to Ammon. She recently received a new baby girl doll. Apparently, she likes Ammon so much that she named her baby doll Ammon. KyAnn tried to explain that her doll was a girl and Ammon is a boy name, but that didn’t matter to her; the little doll that she loves to play with would be named Ammon, case closed. When we picked the boys up that night they were both so happy and had had a wonderful time. We were there for over 20 minutes just watching Coleson and Shayla run around the house, with no awareness that it was well past bedtime. As we left that night I was reminded of the goodness of the people that we are able to associate with on a daily basis, and this night also reminded me of the specific goodness this family has shown us in the past. Here’s the specific experience this whole night reminded me of.
About a week and a half after Ammon was born over two years ago, Summer and I were at home when a knock came at the door (we received a lot of welcome knocks on the door after Ammon was born). KyAnn also has three teenage daughters named Jill, Carrie, and Paige; and they were standing there on our doorstep. One of them handed me a thick envelope and simply said something to the effect of, “hope all is well, we’ll see you later.” Before I could really say anything more than thanks they were off the porch and heading home. I assumed the envelope contained birth congratulations or a get well soon card for Summer (it would still be quite some time before Summer would be able to do anything physical or quickly). I gave the envelope to Summer and we opened it together on the couch. There were no cards, but instead several pieces of paper, a couple of receipts, and two cards that looked like they were from Flying J (a gas station chain). We were confused to say the least. We quickly read the first page and it essentially said the following: “We heard about Ammon and understand that he will probably be in the hospital for some time, so we wanted to do something to make it easier. After thinking about it for a while, we thought it might be helpful if we could get you some gas cards to pay for the fuel in your cars as you drive back and forth to the hospital. We put together a short letter and passed it around the neighborhood explaining what we wanted to do and if together we might be able to purchase some gas cards. We gave a short deadline and people have been dropping off money at our house non-stop for the past few days. We were actually quite surprised about the incredible response and how much was donated, it far exceeded our expectations. You’ll find in the envelope two gas cards, one for each car. Each gas card contains well over $200 (around $500 all together). Thank you for letting us serve you and be part of this miracle.” It was signed by these three wonderful girls. Summer and I were obviously beside ourselves. I kept looking at the receipts and turning the gas cards over and over in my hands. It took us a half an hour to regain our composure before we could walk down to their house and somehow tell them thank you. I remember KyAnn stressing to us on that day that these girls came up with the idea, drafted the letter, purchased the gas cards, and everything else all on their own. They just couldn’t get over the response from so many people and had no idea it would be this big so quickly.
At the time I’d thought this was miracle enough, we had already been so greatly blessed, but here’s the interesting end to this story. For over two months Summer traveled daily, sometimes two or three times a day, to be with Ammon at the hospital. The drive was a little over a half hour each way from our home (when I drove to the hospital after work it was still about a half hour past our home). On the day after Christmas when we were going to the hospital to pick up Ammon and bring him home, the tank was empty and we stopped for gas. Almost without thinking at this point I slid the gas card into the reader and pumped the gas. I stood there in the cold brisk wind, pumping the gas, and eagerly thinking of being with Ammon. The receipt printed out and I noticed that the funds on the card had been depleted. I stared in stunned silence at the receipt and again just turned that gas card over and over in my hand. The card had perfectly paid for all the fuel that was required, right up until the last tank, for the last drive, for the last time we would have to travel to see Ammon instead of just being with him at home. I’ve thought many times since how interesting that was, and it is interesting isn’t it. Miracles many times have a way of making us think, and stand back in awe, even those miracles that involve three special young women, a neighborhood of good people, and a couple of gas cards.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Monday, January 7, 2008
Bumps in the Night...
Work on the basement is moving along well (I promise I'll put some pictures out here very soon, I know people are dying to see a bunch of 2x4s and Coleson expertly shooting cans off the top of the water heaters with the nail gun). On Saturday night at about 2 or 3 a.m. Summer and I were rudely awakened by an extremely loud rumbling noise coming from the basement directly under our bed. My buddy "helping with the basement" (i.e., pretty much doing all the work that requires any sort of technical construction skill, such as using a tape measure or tuning in the radio to various rock ballads from the 80's), has occassionally been trying to unnerve me by mentioning "strange happenings" in the basement when it gets dark. So granted when the loud diesel engine caliber noise kicked in at this forsaken time of night, my first thought was, "Oh man, he wasn't kidding!" Summer jumps awake, and we're both thinking the whole house is coming apart. After a few seconds of groggy anticipation, I realize that we had simply left the air compressor plugged in and it had leaked some air over the hours and finally kicked on to re-pressurize. Gratefully the boys did not wake up, and the compressor shut down after 20 seconds or so. Considering the time of night and my initial thoughts of what might be causing the noise, I bravely decided that I would wait till morning to unplug the compressor. Shortly thereafter Summer and I fell back asleep, and I'm proud to note that I bravely unplugged the compressor after church the next day. No strange happenings to report concerning the basement construction, other than our occassional choice of easy listening music while working.
On another note, Sunday was Coleson's first day with his new primary class and teacher. Coleson finally found out that his Mom, Summer, is his happy new teacher, and he is beside himself with joy and excitement at this wonderful development. It was hard keeping this a secret, but well worth the anticipation and surprise that Coleson has been feeling. Ammon is still having a great time in nursery, and I would reiterate everything from the first posting we put out here about Ammon, nursery, and Robin (I finally attached a picture to that first nursery posting).
On another note, Sunday was Coleson's first day with his new primary class and teacher. Coleson finally found out that his Mom, Summer, is his happy new teacher, and he is beside himself with joy and excitement at this wonderful development. It was hard keeping this a secret, but well worth the anticipation and surprise that Coleson has been feeling. Ammon is still having a great time in nursery, and I would reiterate everything from the first posting we put out here about Ammon, nursery, and Robin (I finally attached a picture to that first nursery posting).
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Christmas, New Years, and Shanghai...
Here is a summary of the past holiday season. We announced to all the family on Christmas that Summer and I are expecting another little baby come July 2008. After Ammon's premature birth experience and then the miscarriage our hopes are high that everything seems to be going well with this pregnancy. For the grandparents, Summer made some professional display tiles that have the following saying embossed on them: "Grandparents hearts are so big there's always room for more." We gave these to the grandparents for Christmas and Coleson quickly performed his part by announcing the expected arrival of a new little brother or sister. Coleson has been doing a wonderful job letting our friends and neighbors know; everytime we tell someone that Summer is pregnant the usual reply is "yeah, we know, Coleson told us at the Christmas party" or "Coleson told us in Primary." Coleson is incredibly excited to have another little sibling around to love and play with.
One funny story from the holiday shopping season, of course involves Coleson. Coleson is a great older brother, he is always on his best behavior and very helpful during all of Ammon's doctors appointments, therapy sessions, etc. The point I'm trying to make is that Coleson usually has an extra ounce of patience and tolerance when it comes to Mommy or Ammon related activities that he has to attend, including shopping. Near the end of one day of shopping, Summer is making one last stop at the Quilted Bear (a craft store) to try to find materials for the tiles noted above. She figured that compared to a doctor's or therapist's office the Quilted Bear should at least be marginally more exciting for a five year old. About five minutes into the shopping experience Coleson lays down on the floor, smiles, and tongue in cheek says, "I can't do it, I just can't do it. Mom, this is sooo boring, this store is for old people like Mommies and Grandmas and Grandpas. I just can't do it." After a good laugh by everyone, Mom resigns and shopping for the day is gratefully done.
New Years Eve was a great time spent with neighbors and friends. I don't know about many of you, but when I was a kid I had a difficult time staying up past midnight until I was probably about 10. We actually stayed at the Phippen's home until about 2:30 a.m. (that's A.M. folks), and the most surprising part is that Coleson and all the other kids there stayed up until then as well (Ammon was up until midnight). It was a ton of fun, and I would highly recommend the game Zarahemla to any board game fan.
I've included below some more pictures from my Shanghai trip. Again, Shanghai was nothing that I expected. Granted we lived like the rich tourist over there, but Shanghai has to be one of the most impressive cities I've ever been too (and I've been to many of the large cities across the U.S.). There was simply skyscraper after skyscraper; it makes bustling downtown Salt Lake look like a simple rural village. In my opinion it even dwarfed New York and Chicago. We stayed in the tallest hotel in the world (Grand Hyatt Shanghai) and my room was on the 77 floor (I've included a couple pictures from my room). Right next door was the current tallest building in the world in the final phases of construction. From my hotel room window I still had too look straight up to see the top of the building next door. The people there were incredibly nice and accomodating. I was expecting something similar to Rocky 4 and our 80's view of communist China, with big posters and statues of Mao and other chinese leaders. There was none of that, and a whole lot of trendy shopping, commerce, and business.
Speaking of shopping we had the opportunity on the Saturday there to experience the full Shanghai shopping adventure. Our first reactions to the overall market scenes were, “our wives would love this and would never leave.” A mere 8 hours later of non-stop shopping we finally resigned ourselves to leave the markets due to exhaustion, hunger, and an incredible sense of purchasing satisfaction (we never stopped to eat while shopping, but look at the post below and you might understand). In every sense possible, we finally obtained an understanding of what some women feel when the shopping bug bites. Bargaining was by far the most exciting part of the entire day. We ended up buying custom fitted dress shirts, sport coats, and overcoats, with the local partner offering to ship them to us once they’re finished being sewn (the dress shirts all come with our initials engraved on the cuffs). I’m not used to this type of detail, most of my shirts are readily identified as belonging to me by the fraying collar and baby food stains on the shoulders. We also hit the "knock-off" markets and that was an experience. There are several pictures below of us boarding an elevator to be taken to a secret back room to look at watches, bags, and other expensive items. At one shop the owner opened a hidden door behind a set of shelves and we were in Prada, Rolex, and North Face heaven. Even in the secret shop the first fine watches we looked at were not that impressive, so we kept asking for "heavy" watches, "good quality" watches, and the owner pulled several suitcases out from under the counter and laid before our eyes the finest watches I've seen. As I said, haggling was a ton of fun and we had a great time getting great deals. A Prada bag is currently the new diaper bag at our house.
Despite some comments to contrary the food was excellent. We ate alot of sushi and other local favorites. Each night we had brownies and ice cream delivered to our rooms, and every morning we ate ham, salmon, made to order eggs, and the best tasting fruit I've had since my days down in Fiji. If I ever make it back to Shanghai again, Summer will definitely be coming with me. I loved every minute.
One funny story from the holiday shopping season, of course involves Coleson. Coleson is a great older brother, he is always on his best behavior and very helpful during all of Ammon's doctors appointments, therapy sessions, etc. The point I'm trying to make is that Coleson usually has an extra ounce of patience and tolerance when it comes to Mommy or Ammon related activities that he has to attend, including shopping. Near the end of one day of shopping, Summer is making one last stop at the Quilted Bear (a craft store) to try to find materials for the tiles noted above. She figured that compared to a doctor's or therapist's office the Quilted Bear should at least be marginally more exciting for a five year old. About five minutes into the shopping experience Coleson lays down on the floor, smiles, and tongue in cheek says, "I can't do it, I just can't do it. Mom, this is sooo boring, this store is for old people like Mommies and Grandmas and Grandpas. I just can't do it." After a good laugh by everyone, Mom resigns and shopping for the day is gratefully done.
New Years Eve was a great time spent with neighbors and friends. I don't know about many of you, but when I was a kid I had a difficult time staying up past midnight until I was probably about 10. We actually stayed at the Phippen's home until about 2:30 a.m. (that's A.M. folks), and the most surprising part is that Coleson and all the other kids there stayed up until then as well (Ammon was up until midnight). It was a ton of fun, and I would highly recommend the game Zarahemla to any board game fan.
I've included below some more pictures from my Shanghai trip. Again, Shanghai was nothing that I expected. Granted we lived like the rich tourist over there, but Shanghai has to be one of the most impressive cities I've ever been too (and I've been to many of the large cities across the U.S.). There was simply skyscraper after skyscraper; it makes bustling downtown Salt Lake look like a simple rural village. In my opinion it even dwarfed New York and Chicago. We stayed in the tallest hotel in the world (Grand Hyatt Shanghai) and my room was on the 77 floor (I've included a couple pictures from my room). Right next door was the current tallest building in the world in the final phases of construction. From my hotel room window I still had too look straight up to see the top of the building next door. The people there were incredibly nice and accomodating. I was expecting something similar to Rocky 4 and our 80's view of communist China, with big posters and statues of Mao and other chinese leaders. There was none of that, and a whole lot of trendy shopping, commerce, and business.
Speaking of shopping we had the opportunity on the Saturday there to experience the full Shanghai shopping adventure. Our first reactions to the overall market scenes were, “our wives would love this and would never leave.” A mere 8 hours later of non-stop shopping we finally resigned ourselves to leave the markets due to exhaustion, hunger, and an incredible sense of purchasing satisfaction (we never stopped to eat while shopping, but look at the post below and you might understand). In every sense possible, we finally obtained an understanding of what some women feel when the shopping bug bites. Bargaining was by far the most exciting part of the entire day. We ended up buying custom fitted dress shirts, sport coats, and overcoats, with the local partner offering to ship them to us once they’re finished being sewn (the dress shirts all come with our initials engraved on the cuffs). I’m not used to this type of detail, most of my shirts are readily identified as belonging to me by the fraying collar and baby food stains on the shoulders. We also hit the "knock-off" markets and that was an experience. There are several pictures below of us boarding an elevator to be taken to a secret back room to look at watches, bags, and other expensive items. At one shop the owner opened a hidden door behind a set of shelves and we were in Prada, Rolex, and North Face heaven. Even in the secret shop the first fine watches we looked at were not that impressive, so we kept asking for "heavy" watches, "good quality" watches, and the owner pulled several suitcases out from under the counter and laid before our eyes the finest watches I've seen. As I said, haggling was a ton of fun and we had a great time getting great deals. A Prada bag is currently the new diaper bag at our house.
Despite some comments to contrary the food was excellent. We ate alot of sushi and other local favorites. Each night we had brownies and ice cream delivered to our rooms, and every morning we ate ham, salmon, made to order eggs, and the best tasting fruit I've had since my days down in Fiji. If I ever make it back to Shanghai again, Summer will definitely be coming with me. I loved every minute.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Mmmmm, Sounds Yummy!
My apologies on the drought of blog posts recently, but work has been incredibly busy (and unfortunately will only become moreso) and I've been out of the country in Shanghai, China. I'll post some more about my Shanghai trip in the next few days hopefully, to say the least it was awesome and nothing that I expected. However, I did want to post a picture of a restaraunt we saw in one of the markets. Personally, I'm not familiar with a "crad", especially that part of a "crad", but if you have a good product that people love to eat it's always best to promote it (even in English for the non-Chinese reading people). Please notice that the resaraunt is packed and there was a line of people about 300 yards long waiting to dine. Enjoy, and comments are welcome (the picture was taken with my camera phone, so it's a little fuzzy; I've included below the picture the actual phrase from the bottom line on the restaraunt window).
Dumpling Stuffed with the Ovary and Digestive Glands of a Crad (I never thought I'd use some of those words in an actual family blog post, I guess it's good to get past that milestone).
Dumpling Stuffed with the Ovary and Digestive Glands of a Crad (I never thought I'd use some of those words in an actual family blog post, I guess it's good to get past that milestone).
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Santa Claus is Coming...
This past Saturday was the much anticipated annual tradition of Santa Claus traveling through the city on one of the Syracuse fire trucks. We started hearing the fire engine shortly after 9:00 a.m., and it finally made it to our house around 10:30 a.m. Coleson had a great time playing and waiting outside, and fortunately there was a fresh blanket of snow from the night before. Santa yet again did not dissappoint, and it reminded us all again how great this little city is that we get to live in.
This past weekend we also finally bought some tools and materials to start on finishing our basement. One of our good friends in the neighborhood is going to be assisting us in the completion process (heaven knows I can barely wield a hammer let alone a deadly nail gun). We'll throw some pictures out here as we the process begins and continues, and we are always open to design ideas, etc. Right now everything is pretty standard and we are planning on an entertainment/playroom/pool table room (all one big room), an office, two bedrooms, and a full bath and half bath. It feels really weird to say that when all is said and done we will have five toilets conveniently located throughout the house to serve all your toilet needs.
This past weekend we also finally bought some tools and materials to start on finishing our basement. One of our good friends in the neighborhood is going to be assisting us in the completion process (heaven knows I can barely wield a hammer let alone a deadly nail gun). We'll throw some pictures out here as we the process begins and continues, and we are always open to design ideas, etc. Right now everything is pretty standard and we are planning on an entertainment/playroom/pool table room (all one big room), an office, two bedrooms, and a full bath and half bath. It feels really weird to say that when all is said and done we will have five toilets conveniently located throughout the house to serve all your toilet needs.
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