006 - Sixth Weekly Update from the Utah Ridleys - General Conference, Angelic Rescue, Ward Hoedown, Long Workday, and Snow

General Conference, in the words of Dave:

Along with Saints the world over, we attended the General Conference 

of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on October 4th and 5th - from the comfort of our own home. Emily got packets of things for the kids to color and work on that were related to the talks to help keep them tuned in to the messages of counsel and instruction from our church leaders. We even took the huge box from our recently-installed dishwasher and made a Conference Tent (shack?) for the kids to sit in with a door cut out facing the television. It was our most successful Conference to date in terms of attention spans and noise levels and it appears that our children actually were listening much of 

the time. Nathan, for instance, seems to have paid particular attention to messages about the reality of angels, seen and unseen, who assist us in times of trouble (see below). After the last session of conference, a feast was prepared and hosted at the Ridley house - notable attendees were Glenn & Tessa McMillan and Becky & Matthew Lords. A good time was had by all. Dave also attended the Priesthood Session of conference on Saturday night at the chapel and was reminded of his duty to his family. Meanwhile, Becky was good enough to come over and keep Em company and play with the kids. It's nice to live near neighbors (of course, we miss living close to Ty and Sara in Idaho. But you can't have it all – at least not simultaneously).
 

Nathan Rescued, a la Emily:
Last week Nathan refused to even go through the door for music class. Frustrated, I drove the boys to a nearby park. We got out of the car and walked over the two bridges to wander around the baseball fields for a few minutes. When it was time to retrieve Hayley from class, I called for the boys to follow me to the car. I ended up carrying Matthew or holding his hand, and watched as Nathan, against my instructions, ran on the inside of one of the outfield fences instead of on the outside - the shorter route back to the car. I walked back over the marsh on the bridges and put Matthew in the car, expecting Nathan to follow in a few minutes. I waited and watched, but didn't see him. (There were large trees that blocked my view of where Nathan had wandered.) Leaving Matthew in the car, 

I went back over the bridges and started calling for Nathan. After I'd gone a few steps along the bank, I heard a small voice: "I'm down here, Mom." And down there he was. He had gone down in the mud of the marsh, probably mistaking its green covering for grass, and therefore solid ground, which it wasn't. He was 6 or 7 steps into it. I had no hope of reaching him without trudging through the mud and getting stuck myself. And he was very stuck - up past his ankles. Fighting back a bit of panic, I told him to try getting his feet out again. He wiggled and squirmed, but he

 was still stuck. I told him to try getting his feet out of his shoes. He got his right foot out, but then put his foot back in the mud to 

try and release the other foot. He wasn't getting anywhere. He looked up at me forlornly and said, "Are you going to have to leave me here?" I didn't have a good answer for that yet. I told him to hang tight, and saying a prayer for help, I 

started looking for reeds and branches - anything he could step on to help get him to the bank. With a bunch of reeds in my hand, I turned back across the bridge - and suddenly, there he was, his shoe in hand, safely up on the grass and running toward me. I was very relieved, but still talked to him about being obedient. I asked him if he had 

thought about yelling for help - or whether he was worried he'd have to stay there for a long time. He said he was worried. I took his pants, shoes and socks off and put them in a plastic bag. Once we were on the 

road I asked him how he got out - for I really didn't know how he had done it. He just said, "Maybe Heavenly Father helped me." I told him that was probably true, and that I had prayed for help. I was reminded of Elder Holland's Conference talk about angels.


Ward Hoedown
Dave and Emily were recently called to help with the activities committee. The assignment: canvass 1/3 of the ward with fliers, shop for the food at Costco, and come early to set up. Emily 

decided to be brave and get the job done with the kids during the day. The first time they went out for half an hour before lunch and got half the houses covered, but Nathan was pushing the stroller and navigated Matthew through some very large puddles. After lunch, Emily wisely took the boys in the double stroller. Hayley was most helpful – running up to the doors to tape the fliers to each residence. All told, it took them a little more than an hour. Friday night, we gathered with our new ward family for beans and cornbread, bareback riding, barrel racing, calf roping, folk-song singalonging, square dancing, and pictures by Emily in front of a beautiful and elaborate countrified backdrop (the "calves" in these events were stuffed animals and the "horses" of two varieties – stick, in the case of the barrel (bucket) racing, and 16-18 year-old priests and teachers offering their services, in the case of bareback riding). Dave was the PA announcement voice of the events. Yee-haw!

Long Hours
By the time Saturday the 11th dawned, Dave had already been at work for some four hours. The new job involves a more manageable set of duties and a shorter 

commute and we're all grateful - and the learning curve at this early stage is still very steep making each task take longer. After a couple of weeks of things piling up on the desk at work, it became apparent that he would have to go in on Saturday to write reports and tend to other necessaries. The rest of the family trollied off to attend the BYU Homecoming Parade that morning. David left the office to join them for lunch at home, took a brief break to play with everyone, and went back to work until dinner, stories, and bedtime. The kids being laid down in peaceful slumber, Dave once again marched back to the office for another four or five hours.

Long hours for David means, of course, long hours for Emily. Stress mounts as the as the kids bounce – off each other, the furniture, and the walls. Without their fatherly friend, they weary their mama and tread her toes in the kitchen with endless requests, complaints, and "I want to show you something"s.  Running errands becomes a lot more complicated with kids in tow. So, on most such days, Dave tries to do the extra office time when the kids are sleeping (say between 10 and 6 – coming home so Emily can go walking in the increasingly-cold weather).  Is it worth it? The result - David can once again operate his therapy office in an organized manner without fear of losing important paperwork or forgetting critical appointments. We are hoping (against reason) that as he gets more accustomed to his job, it will be several weeks before he has to pull another long day like that.


Snow
October 12th, we arose to find our yard hiding under a cold white. Mt. Timpanogos was wrapped thick in an indistinguishable wall of precipitation and clouds and rendered (or dithered, depending on how you don't look at it) entirely invisible. The kids were amazed that something so massive as a mountain could completely disappear. Not wanting them to get wet but sympathizing with their excitement over the opening snowfall of the season, Dave held each child out over the back porch by their ankles to allow them to retrieve a snowball's worth of the precious powder. Breaking with tradition, the kids had post-breakfast dessert - colorful bowls of flavored snow.

 - The Ridleys