On Miracles

Me circa 1985

Ah, my long neglected blog.  So much happens in life and I need to work harder to find time to write it down.  One thing that has happened lately is the resurrection of an event in my past.  On May 16, 1986 my elementary school was held hostage.  It's not something that I talk about much, but it was a defining moment in my life.  Now a movie has been made about the events of that day and an interesting discussion has arisen because of it.  The movie focuses on the miraculous; the fact that all 154 hostages survived.  While many see this as a great thing there have also been others who are seemingly offended by our survival.  Their comments are along the line that God is unfair when He saves the lives of some children and not the lives of others.  Some have even made the claim that we think we are better than others in similar circumstances because of our survival.  That is certainly not and has never been the case.  I have shed more tears than I care to count in guilt that I am alive and other children around the world have died.  The discussion around miracles and answers to prayer have led me to think deeply about the topic.  I have prayed and searched to understand it; for what they are worth, here are my thoughts.

People look at our story - disturbed couple with guns and a bomb take hostages, the bomb detonates but all innocents survive - and they think one of two things: that’s wonderful or that’s not fair.  The first reaction acknowledges the goodness of God and the second doubts God’s justice and judgement.  Why save these kids and not others?   It’s a fair question, but without a correct understanding of the attributes and character of God then it is a question without an answer.  If we say that God is fair only when every child in a dangerous situation is saved, then we eliminate God’s sacred gift to us: that of the right and ability to choose what we will do for good or evil.  You see, everyone who would want to commit a crime against a child would already know the outcome of that choice; the child they wanted to harm would be saved so the crime would not be committed even though the desire would still be there.  The outward man would conform, but the inward man would still be evil, and it is the inward man that God wants us to change.  If, in our hearts, we are like God then our outward actions will reflect God’s love and His good will to all mankind.  We would have no desire to harm a child or anyone else.  

God allows us to choose who we will be, and those choices affect others.  Sometimes those choices cause death, other times bodily injury, and still other times it is trauma to the mind and the emotional makeup of a child.  All these things are seen and remembered by an all wise and all-knowing and loving God, and they will be the terrible inheritance of those who perpetrated them.  There will be justice for every single terrified child; God Himself will see to it.  In the meantime, on this earth, children will live and children will die, but every life is a miracle and every death is a merely a temporary separation.  Every prayer offered by a frantic parent or loved one for the life of a child will ultimately be answered by God with a resounding “YES!” because Jesus Christ laid down His life and took it up again so that all will live.  Every child will come forth in the resurrection and be raised by those parents who so anxiously waited to see them again.  They will grow into adulthood safe from fear, trauma, and pain because of the greatness of our God and the loving sacrifice of our Savior.  I know all prayers are heard and they are answered in the time, will, and way of God.  If we trust Him, in the goodness, love, mercy, and justice that are inseparable parts of His divine nature, we will be able to wait patiently upon the Lord.

First Day of School

Today is back to school!  Where did the summer go?  The kids are were all very excited/nervous, but sweet father's blessings helped to calm their nerves.  We had a great morning, but an early one with Merritt needing to be out the door at 7:25 to catch the bus.  We moved scripture study up to 6:30 and it worked like a charm!  I've never had such a smooth first-day-of-school morning.  Now I need to breeze through my chores, make cookies with Joseph for an after school treat, and wait for the first day report.

Cousins

My mom has a brother and a sister and so does my dad, but I never really knew my cousins.  The ones we saw most often were Greg and Brian, and that was probably 7 or 8 times in the 18 years I lived at home.  I would have loved to know them better.  I'm grateful that my kids see their own cousins more often and list them among their friends.  Nathan came to visit our home and after he left, my little Joseph didn't stop asking where "Nafun" was for three days.  Now their "Wyoming" cousins are here to visit and they are having a marvelous time.  We were able to take the kids to the zoo yesterday.  They laughed at the monkeys, oohed and aahed over snakes and crocodiles, marveled at the polar bear, elephants and rhinos, and just enjoyed themselves.  We topped it off with some water fun at the zoo splash pad.  What a fun day!

Peach Harvest

There is something so satisfying about the sight of a small mountain of peaches that grew on your own backyard fruit tree.

Summer School

So, two years ago we did the whole summer school thing and it was a total disaster.  Merritt hated every moment of it and it was harder to get him to go there than it was to get him to go to school.  Lovely.  I had to admit that he had a point...the art and writing class had no art and instead of making a book they did a summer school newsletter.  Lame!  Plus, the science class had 50 kids in it so no one got to do anything.  Lame x 2!  Needless to say, we skipped it the next year, but as I perused the list of classes being offered this summer I thought that we should try again.  There was Art (sans writing) for Merritt and American Girl Doll and Beginning Sewing for Grace.  Would it be fun?  The answer, thankfully, was yes.  They went to their classes with happy faces and came home with fun things every day. This is a sampling of Merritt's art.

This fish was colored using pointillism.  Merritt painstakingly made hundreds of dots to outline and then fill in his Fishey Fish Fish.

I thought that this sectioning technique was great for him to learn.  He free hand draws everything, but this method teaches scale and proportion.

When it came time to work with clay, Merritt chose to create a cave.  After it had dried, the teacher had him paint it.

We saw Despicable Me 2, courtesy of Aunt Heather, and Merritt thought the purple Minions were hilarious.  When it came time to practice "rip art", Merritt shredded many pieces of purple paper to create one.

This is my personal favorite for two reasons.  1: It is adorable.  2: The teacher had everyone copy her version of the Monster Bookmark, which was with the teeth pointed downward and the eyes above the teeth.  Merritt looked at it and decided that it would look better the other way, so he put the eyes above the pointed up teeth.  I think it looks marvelous and is a testament to his creativity.

As for Grace?  Well, thankfully her teacher wasn't an American Doll snob.  Any 18 inch doll was welcome at the class, which was a good thing because who can afford those American Dolls anyway?  I mean, sure they are cute, but SHEESH!  So, Grace took her doll Abby to class and made her a...

ballet barre and a tutu...

shoes (from colored duct tape and other stuff), a skirt, a shirt, a vest, a wallet with fake money, a necklace, a hair tie, a purple hair decoration, and a feather boa...

a plate of breakfast food, a glass of punch, a glass of orange juice, a cake, some candy....

a pet gold fish in a bowl...

a purse and a bathrobe.  *Gasp for breath!!*  That doll has more stuff and is better dressed than me!

Finally, however, is my favorite thing she made.  It is a rainbow she carefully stitched herself in sewing class.  Sophie & Christine  B. are the best!!

Yeah for summer school!  We'll have to do it again sometime.

I'm a Mormon!

Yes, this is hardly news to anyone, but like all good news, you just have to exclaim it every once and a while.  Plus, the little doo-dad on my sidebar works now!  I've had a mormon.org profile for some time, and I have wanted to link it to my blog, but seeing that I am technologically challenged, it didn't work for the longest time.  Now, hooray, it works!  If you click on the button, you will be directed to my profile and also have the opportunity to view many, many others.  So, one more time...I"M A MORMON!  Happy day!!

24th of July fun!

Chad got free tickets to the opening night of the Days of '47 Rodeo, which fell on a Monday, so we decided to make it our Family Home Evening outing and really have some fun.  The kids and I piled into the van and drove to Chad's work to pick him up.  We headed out to the South Towne Expo center first to see the floats that would be featured in the parade.

I saw this float and had to snap a picture.  Dad would be so proud!!  Go Cougars!

One of two Noah's Ark themed floats, the kids were able to play a game locating different animals in order to get a small prize.

The variety of floats was truly amazing.  Too bad some of our pictures didn't turn out!!

 There was face painting, balloon animals and other activities at the event and the children decided they wanted a balloon animal.  The cost was free, unless you count standing in line for 30 minutes (which Chad does!).

Merritt got a balloon python.

Grace got a balloon bow and arrow.  Sorry sweetie, you are holding it backwards!

Grant got a balloon bow and arrow as well, Joseph got a monkey, and Chad got a lesson in patience.  :)

 After viewing the floats, we grabbed a quick dinner at Wendy's and headed to the rodeo.  Being from Wyoming, I've seen lots of rodeos, so it was really weird to me that my kids had never been to one.  We saw calf roping (which totally disturbed Grace until she watched the first one hop right up and run off), saddle bronc riding, team roping, barrel racing, and bull riding (which was totally insane!).  Those bulls are ornery!

 

The best part was when it was announced over the loud speaker that President Thomas S. Monson, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, and Elder Jeffery R. Holland were in attendance.  We gave them a great big cheer and tried to take their picture, but the cell phone camera couldn't get a good one across the arena.  What a fun night!

The BIG 1-1!

Our wonderful Merritt is now 11...yikes!  He is so big and so fun and such a great kid.  Here is a list of some of the things that Merritt likes, dislikes, and thinks about.

In his spare time, Merritt likes to draw.  He draws on his doodleboard, but he will also draw on paper and then painstakingly color (with markers and colored pencils) his latest creation.  If he has a theme, he will often gather the collection of pictures he has made and staple them into a book.

Merritt drawing at a recent trip to check up on my parent's house.

Merritt loves pizza and rootbeer and hamburgers and baked chicken and lemon bars and soup and ice cream sandwiches.

Merritt doesn't like lemony pastas (what?), carrots, any kind of berry (why?), or cereal (WEIRD!).

Merritt's favorite color is black.  He hates the color pink.  He says he won't touch anything pink unless he has gloves on.

Merritt is learning how to cook.

Merritt wants to go to Lagoon.  We plan on it every year and then something breaks down and eats our Lagoon money.

Merritt loves that he is related to Porter Rockwell.

Merritt's favorite part of our summer vacation this year was hiking through the hoodoos at Bryce Canyon.

Merritt says that his most memorable life event (other than being born) was when he was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Merritt loves Legos (Hero Factory, Pharoah's Quest, and Galaxy Squad) and his favorite tv show is Riders of Berk (the How to Train Your Dragon spin-off).  He is currently reading the second set of 39 Clues books (Cahills vs. Vespers).  He told me once that lots of boys in his class don't like to read and that he thought that was really weird.  His favorite movie is Jurassic Park (I and III).

Merritt's 11th b-day was all Hero Factory, books, and  school clothes.

Merritt's favorite cake (requested 2 years in a row now) is Peppermint Patty.

Merritt wants to be a paleontologist.


We love Merritt so much!  He is a good big brother and a wonderful son!!

July 4th and a Ride on a Float!

This year we went one town over for Independence Day because Grace's dance group had a float and she got to ride on it.  That was quite exciting and the change of venue was fun.  We found ourselves a pretty decent spot near the beginning of the parade route and set up camp.  We brought water and CapriSun packets and Otter Pops all packed in ice inside a cooler, but it was so dang hot the Otter Pops were plastic sleeves full of juice by the time we left.  This summer has been a scorcher!  I'm glad we got pictures of Grace at the beginning of the parade route.  By the time we picked her up at the end, she was sweaty and limp despite the icy water filled bottle and the best efforts of her dance teacher to mist the kids down with a spray bottle as they went along. 

There were SO MANY kids along the parade route.  The police sent out regular patrols on 4 wheelers to remind everyone to stay back past the lines in the road.  The kids were so eager to get candy they were running right next to the floats and if it weren't for the roving officers someone would have been run over sooner or later.  By the time we went home we had pockets overflowing with candy, red, white and blue beads around our necks, a tube of toothpaste, and Chad had a coupon for a free tie.  We tried to snag balls and frisbees and t-shirts too, but had no luck, which Merritt was pretty bummed about.

 

Joseph loved the horses and was excited anytime they went by.

Grant snagged the most candy: he's small and quick.

It's okay Merritt!  I didn't get a frisbee either!  But in Merritt's words, "No one pays attention to 10 year old boys!"

Heather enjoys a Otter juice-cicle while Grant gums a salt water taffy.

Joseph gets a ride on Daddy the Pack Mule.

We ended our day by blowing up our small corner of America in honor of our wonderful country - we got some good fireworks this year!  We also got to watch the city fireworks display from our own front lawn.  It was a fun day!!