7/8/11 - 7/17/11
Friday - It appears that our family was invited out to the birthday party of a 7-year-old boy mostly because of Nathan. The park was pleasant, the people were pleasant, the cake and ice cream were pleasant. Maybe it just felt odd because we were the only people there who were not blood relatives to the celebrated pre-denarian. It was a bit like crashing someone else's family reunion. The kids ran up and down the grassy hills and challenged each other (and David) to see who could cross a mighty obstacle course of jungle-gymery without touching the ground once.
Saturday - Emily attended a "Super Saturday" Relief Society event between breakfast and lunch - she states she learned about food storage and meal planning. She also learned that her Relief Society group does not attend such meetings very well. David had 3 hours of therapy (2 free, one paid) before and after Emily's meeting - wrapping up a week which saw 16 hours of therapy completed (many of which were promotional/free therapy hours - but still, a relatively good week).
Sunday - After a home teaching visit in which Nathan accompanied his father, the family who were visited rewarded Nathan with a bag of "pirates treasure" - candy and novelty toys themed around sea-going looters. Back at the Ridley hideout, the booty was divided. Matthew was impressed! He was so excited to go help home teach the next family with Dad an hour later - but came home empty-handed because the second family had not had a recent pirate-themed birthday party for their five year old.
Monday - As a one-on-one-time activity, David asked Hayley what she wanted to do together. Hayley led David out to the back porch to just smell the rain and, moments later, to feel the light warm drizzle. Soon Emily popped out with her camera to capture the sunset rainbow. Two full bows could be seen, the outer ring with inverted colors. During a later Family Home Evening lesson on service, the family sat and watched a few clips about missionary service and talked about how Grandma Dena and Grandpa Verl are on a mission. Emily and David put the kids to bed and discussed what movie to watch together. Emily had to be convinced that You've Got Mail would be a better date movie than Jurassic Park. Seem a little backward to anyone else?
Tuesday - While Emily was watching the MLB All-Star game and Nathan was sentenced to clean up the basement, Matthew and David saw a neighbor sitting on their driveway coloring with chalk. So they grabbed their sidewalk chalk and walked over to be social. After drawing some whales and Star Wars themes, Matthew and David were recruited to help hunt for slugs in the neighbors garden. Seven slimy slugs suffered slaughter by salt solution submersion. Matthew would not leave until he had showed the grandmotherly neighbor lady his cartwheel and head stand - brief but graceful. Meanwhile, Hayley was enjoying Activity Days at the Collector's Museum seeing "a lot of, like, olden culture stuff" such as "blown glass, antique teacups, Native American carvings, and lots and lots of dolls."
Wednesday - the kids didn't have enough players for teams of baseball at the park. Matthew says, "we just had batting practice. We pitched to mom. We had one turn for each, except for three people." The children participated as audience members in a production of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" at the library. Hayley learned, while at that library performance, that her picture was in the paper on Saturday (from her role as Polonius the week before) and that she and her mother were quoted therein. David went out with the missionaries that evening. After some brief visits with people on their list, a first discussion was taught to a 50+ woman who is both a recovering addict and an addictions counselor. David talked about the role faith in a higher power plays in raising people's self-worth and commitment to change in therapy. The woman accepted the missionaries' invitations to read, ponder, pray, and prepare for baptism.
Thursday - While Emily mowed the lawn and went to book club, David and the kids skipped off to Rigby to move a piano. Actually, the children were no help - but they played out of the way and caused no trouble. A certain Jennifer Owen bought a discount upright, and her husband Jesse got to round up some roadies to relocate it from across town to their family room. The move was one of disquieting smoothness and simplicity; several commented how oddly non-laborious and injury/damage-free it was. The only concern arose when the pickup with the strapped and cinched spinet buttressed by David Ridley momentarily appeared to some to be attracting the attention of several patrol cars along the route. One hardly has occasion to contemplate just how seat-belt laws apply to professional piano movers crouched strategically in open truck beds until one is one.
Friday - The Ridley house was full of children who had gathered for the junior book club. They had read the Narnia series and drew battle lines in the back yard to fight with specially-decorated paper shields and willow-branch long swords. When they tired of their dizzying cycle of capture imprison rescue repeat, they could take a short break and enjoy a lemony, sugary Turkish delight. After work and dinner, the Ridley family went to a local production of "Rockwell, the Musical" - not to be confused with Norman Rockwell; this is the break-into-spontaneous-song version of the life of distant relative Porter Rockwell. Hayley wanted to see the whole thing, but we ended up leaving at intermission because Nathan and Matthew were so disturbed/disturbing. Though there were certain charms about this musical tribute to a bodyguard/frontiersman, the sound quality was poor and the unfortunate stage layout made it hard for the boys, particularly, to see what was going on.
Saturday - Emily reports that she "spent all day getting ready for the Prestons." Emily's cousins' family came to enjoy some time on their way back from Yellowstone. Dave - who carefully avoided any of the said "getting ready" by surreptitiously working at the office all day - arrived home on cue to grill dinner. It seemed an easy task - light the grill. Yet it took almost an hour, several pages of phone book, and a considerable amount of rubbing alcohol before the briquettes were that happy orange and gray that says, "FINALLY! Now let's clean up all this ash and get these burgers on - I'm starved!" The food was good - and the company arrived just moments after the Ridleys had finished off the first round. When everyone had eaten and played and yelled and ran and screeched and frolicked as much as those over 30 could stand, the smaller people were sent to the basement as if they would go to sleep. We're pretty sure several didn't sleep until after 11.
Sunday - Bacon & sausage rarely appear on the breakfast menu at our house. And a reliable source leaked that the Preston tots are most often compelled to take various forms of hot cereal for their morning repast. So you can imagine the cheers when a frying pan was produced and savory sizzling deliciousness greeted the eager eaters. No sooner commenced than consumed, the meal gave way to all manner of horsing around until everyone under 5 feet tall had to settle down for lunch and church. We pronounced our pre-church goodbyes to the Prestons who premeditated a post-sacramental absconsion. David taught a 2nd-hour lesson on service in which the class was divided into teams to competitively enumerate the most ways to serve others. After church the kids watched Planet Earth and we learned that 1) a blue whale can alternately go 5 months without eating and then eat more than 3 tons of krill per day; 2) when hungry, a pride of 30 lions can (and did!) take down a full-sized elephant (ever seen a lion mount and ride a running elephant?) and a band of gorillas can (and did!) take down and cannibalize members of a rival band; 3) seals can catch and eat penguins on land but not with nearly the grace a great white shark can catch and eat a seal in water; and 4) there is seemingly no end to the creativity of Heavenly Father who made such an amazing and varied world for us to learn and grow upon!
Sunday, according to Matthew - "Every time in my Sunday class, we have to - no in our other class - whenever I go there when I don't have a teacher, we have to tell the teacher something we did yesterday - on Saturday. I could only remember this day. What I said today is about the Prestons Saturay and when they left I told them that. And In class, I had something exciting. Letters. Little letters and they had little letter...little papers like they are dads and moms going on a mission - what the missions mean on them - and I'll tell you the kids names in my class. It's me, Kyra - Kyra Jardene, Dalton...Dalton Miles, um, Nathan...yeah, it's Nathan Monson. AND the ones in my class that came, they were coming in there too and it's Avery, Tyler, and Owen. I found Tyler looking for our teachers and then I went to go to get - my Dad told me I went to get my scriptures and when I got back, Owen was there. And when I was there, Avery came in. [whispers] that's all my comment." Thank you, Matthew, for your contribution.
This week we could use any prayers you can spare for the Idaho Licensing Board to approve Dave as a fully-licensed therapist (as he is in Utah) - otherwise we may be less-employed until October when the board will reconvene to make judgments on licensure applications. We thank you for your concern and your petitions on our behalf.
No comments:
Post a Comment