Abundant Recompense Copy

I woke up grumpy this morning for no reason. I hoped that hopping back in bed and sleeping for another 15 minutes after sending Nate off to work would cure it. It was not to be, however, because Addison decided to get an early start on the day. So the morning routine began. A nice greeting, a diaper change, pausing briefly to say hello in the mirror, and downstairs for a bottle. After a few man-sized belches (from him, not me) I plop Add into his walker to scoot around the kitchen, play with toys, and go number two (sorry - it really is the routine) while I have a bowl of cereal and check my email. After a couple minutes of scooting and grunting, I hear him start to whine. I figured he'd dropped his toy, and shoveled in a few more spoonfuls of Fruity Cheerios before going to retrieve it for him. I was right about the toy, but he had a much bigger problem on his hands, or should I say feet. There was my cute little boy sitting in his walker in his jammies unable to move because some...

6:00 came early on Friday morning, but we were only about a half hour late picking up our friends Ange and Roland. At the trailhead we met a guy named Phil who is on a five-week solo tour of all the national parks in the western U.S. and he tagged along with us. The hike started out in the woods and right about when it turned into slickrock we saw another rattlesnake! That's 2 in 2 days. Impressive. Soon after, we started into some pretty steep descending followed by the beginning of the river. The water was COLD. And thanks to my grace and a slippery rock, I made the first, and most spectacular, entry into it in a murky blackish pool. The canyon slotted up pretty slowly, but it was beautiful. There were butterflies all over the place and lots of vegetation, and the sandstone walls around us were towering and majestic, to say the least. We did a good bit of invigorating swimming, some of it through some pretty narrow passages. There were also a few rappels, but we did them without ...

So we made back to good ol' Roy at 11:55 last night, after an action-packed, exhausting four-day weekend in St. George. Day 1 (Thursday) I took Michelle on her first technical canyon ever, the fun (if unfortunately named) Yankee Doodle hollow. And I must say, the girl is tough as nails. She took everything the canyon threw at her, chewed it up, and spit it back out. Yankee Doodle starts with a 25-foot rappel into a wash, anchored off a thrashed old juniper tree. Then a few yards later, it drops a hundred feet into the canyon proper. (The camera decided to focus on the leaves in the foreground) From there it's a series of downclimbing problems. The nicest part is that there are no bolts or handlines anywhere, so you get to figure out each step yourself. At one point, I wrapped the rope around me so Michelle could descend about 8 feet, then I scrambled down using her shoulders as footholds. One thing we weren't prepared for was how wet the canyon was. Southern Utah got some r...

I don't know if it was Nate's puppy-dog-eyed pleading or Addison's shrieks of laughter that did me in, but I am done in. We own a cat. I don't even like cats. I am scared of them, admittedly. We had several cats over the years while I was growing up, and between them and every other cat I have ever come into contact with, there is a grand total of one that hasn't been mean. (Her name was Minnie. May she rest in peace.) All other cats are big jerks that eat your food, shed all over the place, and bite and scratch on a whim. And it's not a fleeting pain they inflict upon you (I'm speaking physically here, we're not even going to enter the emotional realm.) Nate's psychotic cat scratched him the last time we were in St. George and it's probably still not healed. I might've considered a cute little kitten in a cardboard box at WalMart, but big cats and I do not get along. Conveniently, however, the lady who lived here before us took it upon herse...

Last general conference, Elder Ballard addressed some ways husbands can help their wives. Among other things, he said, "Just take over the household and give your wife a break from her daily responsibilities. Taking over for a while will greatly enhance your appreciation of what your wife does." I got my chance Thursday when Michelle was under the weather. All I can say is, dang, that kid can move. He just learned to crawl like 10 minutes ago, and now you can't turn your back on him for a half a second but he's found a power cord, the garbage can, the top of the stairs, the edge of the bed, and the cutlery drawer. And he's reached the milestone heralded in What to Expect as "Complains when you take a toy away." I wish he'd just trust his dad when I tell him he really doesn't want to play with the pliers that I left out. Next, let's try to change his diaper. Simple enough, except he's decided that his favorite position to be in when havi...

One of my most recent projects at work has been to help develop the index for the first volume of the Joseph Smith Papers. And I have to admit, I dig indexes now, however uncool that is. When an index is well done, it can organize a book in ways that bring out aspects that may not be noticed otherwise. For example, in the first volume of the Papers, Joseph Smith's journals from 1832 to 1839, JS says things like "Oh Lord bless thy servant Joseph Amen" all over the place. Since not many people are going to sit down and read the volume cover to cover, it's only by way of an index entry "Joseph Smith, prayers of" that a researcher would be able to fully realize the weight JS puts on prayer, and study the cultural implications of writing prayers into a personal journal. Kind of cool. (By the way, good professional indexers make six figures a year. Looking for a career change? Also by the way, the first volume of the Papers is available for preorder on the distrib...

We've figured out the secret of getting Addison to talk when we want him to. Just tap on his mouth and he'll start going to town. (I think we actually made the discovery during church when we were trying to keep him quiet.) So today while we were having playtime I figured that it's time for the world to hear what he has to say. Oh - and he's been saying "Mama" for at least a month and a half, but I don't think he quite knows what it means. I'll take it though.

Just a quick post to share the wealth. I get an email newsletter every day called " Very Short List ," which alerts readers to a new book, album, or website. And I must say, the links are consistently--though not infallibly--awesome. They were the source for Michelle's Something Different post , and where I found out about Stuff White People Like . Today, I'll just share two recent items, one sublime and one ridiculously funny: TED. Every year, some of the most creative minds in the world get together to attend the Technology, Entertainment, and Design conference . The speakers' challenge: "to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes)." More often than not, the talks spill beyond the three stated genres into education, world politics, and basically saving the world. The conference has a gigantic waiting list and a $6000 price tag, but videos of all the talks are available online. When you have 18 minutes, go watch Jane Goodall on what separates us f...

I've gotta hand it to us, we've been downright diligent with yard work. Every other evening we douse ourselves in bug spray and head outside to tinker with sprinklers, water the petunias (which I think might actually be dead), and weed like there's no tomorrow. Nate came up with the brilliant idea of watering the weed patch about a half hour before we head out, so we can actually make some progress. It has made our weeding sessions much more efficient. It also makes the snails very happy. And there are several of them. As a kid I thought snails were very cool. I made them out of playdough, believed I'd found a real treasure when I found one of their shells, and enjoyed touching the ends of their eyes to watch them sink back into their gooey bodies. But that was when there was like one to deal with. I believe that our house is actually the North American Snail Association headquarters. After watering, you cannot take three steps without crunching at least one snail (see ...

I just wanted to point you in the direction of a few recent(ish) articles in the Church Magazines written by my very own hubby. They're even true! Some of you may not know that he also interned as an editor for the Liahona a few summers ago, so his writing is in other places in the magazines too, just not with his name on it. The illustrations in the magazines themselves are great. Too bad they're not included in the online version. Enjoy! Lost on the Ledge Sunday Best in Brazil

First, I must say that thanks to Steve and Steve, our friendly neighborhood air conditioning guys, we are now living in 72 degree heaven. Second, Addison's growth is out of control. He's seven months old today, and yesterday he sprouted his two front teeth. He also gave his Dad a little surprise. Nate laid him on the floor to roll around while he was working in the kitchen, turned his back, and next time he looked over Addison was sitting up! We're expecting him to start crawling any day now. He's so close. Here are some highlights from his big day: A happy camper Corn on the cob, minus the corn Whooping up on Daddy on our new soft carpet! A crawling lesson Flying Third, congratulations to my Dad ! He recently found out that he'll be running unopposed, so as of January 2009, he...