Spelling attempts

Hyrum likes trying to spell out whatever is on the t-shirt I wore to bed the night before when I come get him in the morning. This week has been full of nostalgia for my undergrad institution.

"BYU 81st Ward" - It took him a while to figure out that d was not o, but he remembered it the next time I wore the shirt and got every letter correct yesterday morning.

"BYU Economics Club" - He got BYU and he got Club this morning. Spelling economics for the first time was cute. "E-CD-O-O-one-CD-S." There's a world of information about him in that spelling. There are times I'm glad to be an ecdoo1st. I believe that's pronounced ec-DOO-first, not to be confused with ec-DOO-fus.

Maybe I should wear the BYU Swing Kids t-shirt tonight and see what he makes of that. "Living the 8-count lifestyle."

Good Old Days

I was creating a LinkedIn account for myself and was trying to remember the name of a service program I had helped coordinate while I was at BYU. I found the Unifarce (sorry, old habits die hard - Universe) article that discussed my involvement in the program. Since it took a while to find, I'm just going to put a bookmark here for myself so I can find it again easily: Adopt-a-Grandparent. So there you go, future-Derrill. You're welcome.

I recall those visits to the rest home very fondly. They led Joy and me to talk to our local government program for the elderly. They put is in contact with a dear lady, Cora Wood, for whom we gathered food from the various food pantries in town once a week. She crocheted Hyrum a lovely blanket and gave him a bear with a matching outfit she made. We had to stop when Hyrum was born and lost contact with her after. If someone in Ithaca happens to run into her or knows her, please let us know. We'd love to be able to say hi again.

When's the last time you contacted your grandparents?

Random Memories of Family

Oh, mystic random picture generator, what memories do you hold for us tonight while Joy is singing with a choir and Hyrum sleeps soundly?

August 24, 2004

To celebrate my birthday and the passing of my Qualifying exams, my girlfriend - the Lovely and Gracious - baked me a Q-cake (a spice cake with bananas). It was a delightful surprise and the first birthday we celebrated together.







My Aunt Virginia gave us some money for our wedding with the stipulation that we had to use it to get something that would be a long-lasting memory. So we bought this beautiful frame and a picture of the temple where we were sealed for time and eternity.








At the Trumansburg Demolition Derby ... probably around Mother's Day 2006. We sat on the front row as I experienced the carnage for the first time and were splattered with mud and dirt. We try to go every year, but I don't think any year has been as awesomely impressive as that first time. ... Aside of course from the time or two that cars caught fire.

My brother and his brand new bride walking out of the Salt Lake Temple, May 6, 2006. I was among the first to catch sight of them. For some reason, they - like we the year before - were separated from each other for quite some time after the wedding. I hung out with him for a while, then went to explain to everyone else what the hold up was, only to wait another 15 minutes. I think he was adjusting her tiara.







Steve stands dutifully while his boutonniere is adjusted. Meanwhile, Aunt Corinne examines the train. She pronounces it quite lovely and points out some of the features to Grammy until Emie decides it's time to move on.

Here I am, fighting in the trenches of the Elbonian/Swiss war.

Not really. It's the Groton fair and the sign said children of ALL ages were allowed in. So I was loud in.




Summer 2007 - One of Joy's best harvests. Almost more tomatoes than she could eat in the height of her tomato-mayonnaise sandwich phase. It was at that point that I formulated the theory that bread and salads were merely vehicles for disguised fry sauce - lots of tomatoes, lots of mayonnaise-based sauce ... fry sauce.










Hyrum briefly laid claim to Joy's temple bag as his own carry-around. Any time we left the house, he would ask for his bag and be quite upset if we couldn't find it.





Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

The Italian peacocks were disdainful of the tourists' attempts to make them show their tails.







At Christmas 2009, Hyrum delivers a present to Aunt Emilee.









Also at Christmas 2009, an updated Watson Family picture is taken. This is my edit of the base picture. We're still awaiting the final print. From left to right: the people who don't like nicknames; Pop and Gamma Boo; the Lovely and Gracious, the Permagrin Baby, and yours truly.

During that Christmas, Steve went from goatee to mustache, and I got to say, I really think it suits him and his work on Spanish lit.

The End of the World

I've been meaning to talk about this for a few weeks now: the chance that you or I could be killed this weekend on Channel 9. Okay, not really.

(You may want to stop the video at the end of the song - even the ads for College Humor's other fare can be quite inappropriate. Courtesy Today's Big Thing. Contains zombies.)

But when I watched this, it got me thinking about The End of the World As I Knew It. (Funny thing, that). I realized that the world as I knew it has ended quite frequently. The last time the world ended was in September. When the world ends, it's not just a change in lifestyle, but a near-permanent rearranging of everything. It affects who I think I am and how I relate to the world, not just narrow confines. Adam would call it a shattering as you try to rearrange the pieces and create a new person from the old.

Though that reconsitution is never easy, the end of the world can be a good thing! Hyrum's birth ended the world as I knew it. Joy's too. It's a more complex, physically and emotionally-draining world, but a world with much greater sweetness and delight in little things.

Most of the time, the world ends without warning. The world as I knew it ended 6 years ago next week when I met Joy. It ended again shortly after we were married as my dissertation was shot down and I began doubting myself from the center out. It ended with little warning in the rain on the streets of East Germany while I lay waiting for an ambulance. It ended the night my date reached up to try to kiss me and I discovered for the first time there was hope for even me. ... Other people seem to have a lot to do with the end of the world.

Sometimes, though, the world ends on schedule. It ended on graduating from BYU and to a lesser extent from high school, but oddly enough not when graduating from Cornell - what really changed? not much. I expected a lot more to happen concurrently that didn't. I had fair warning when my missionary world was going to end and Hyrum came right on schedule.

The world can also end so gradually, you don't notice. Per was going to end the world and invite me into several new ones, though I had no idea of that when I met him. The world slowly ended while I sat on the nursery room floor to play with and teach the 2 year olds in our church. Regular temple attendance and repentance have continually changed the world as I knew it - always for the better, seldom obviously at first. The world ended one day studying the scriptures as I decided whether to go in to economics or German, but I had no idea what I was doing to the thin-spread, multi-majored undergrad Derrill.

Will moving to the ward be the end of the world as I know it? It felt like it last night after my last branch presidency meeting. But probably not. Then again, my Dad's first comment just happened to be mine also when we learned about it: "Time to grow up." Maybe it will all just be part of the gradual end of the world as I move from student to (someday) teacher - a consummation devoutly to be wished?

7 Random Pictures

Sleepless night, so here are some random shots from the archives:


This was the first rose I gave Joy. We were getting together for our second date to watch General Conference and I was preparing to ask if we could revisit her earlier suggestion that we be bf/gf.

She said yes.

I have no idea what they talked about that conference. And I'm sitting here with a big, stupid grin on my face. Thank you, Love.




My birthday last year was at Chuck E. Cheese's. Hyrum had not yet learned to fear all foods and was fascinated by Joy's orange soda. Never drank any, but boy he wanted to hold it.









Lifetime Achievement Awards: Too little, too late? Discuss.

















Like stepping over baby gates when you just put a storm window behind it. Oooh, that hurt! It stung most of the day. It's pretty ugly looking. I put a pic on Facebook about it. We'll see if it warrants a blog post also.










Early one July B.H. (Before Hyrum) we traveled to Lake Placid to see the horse jumping competitions. We loved it. Joy is planning on using her birthday money to pay for her first horse riding lessons.











Sadly, Chris didn't actually discover himself. He discovered the 70s instead. Thankfully, that just means we get to be retro-Columbus every 30 years. Bell-bottom cargo ships, anyone?










*singing*
When I first came to this land [8 years ago]
I was not a wealthy man
So I got myself a cat
And I did what I could

We're Home - Quick Highlights

We're baaaaa-aack!

For two weeks we were in Italy with Joy's brother and family. We figured we normally try to go to UT to visit her family, but the cost to go to Italy would be close to the same and we hadn't seen them in a long time and and and... so we did it. DeWayne (the brother in question) took the two weeks off of work so they could all go with us for most of our travels. I anticipate far more blogs than I will probably get around to writing, so here is the quick and dirty version:

The best part of travelling was Hyrum attempting to haul our suitcases around the Philadelphia airport during layovers. He was persistent like nobody's business. He carried on like this for an hour and a half, going back and forth on the people movers. And the FIT he gave us if we took the suitcase away! He just wanted to be a little adult. I dub this Hyrum vs. Suitcase:




We started off the next day in Venice, touring the Murano glass areas, and wandering through the main touristy thoroughfare until we got to the gondola of our choice. So we gonolaed for an hour and then I carried our sleeping baby back to the train home.




Saturday we went to a national park in the Dolomites, part of the Italian Alps. We wandered along a river and climbed up a path to find a serious of waterfalls with little pools.







Tuesday we left Hyrum with their family and took off by ourselves for a few days. We first visited Lake Bled in Slovenia. Any time you see a small lake with an island and a castle rising from the cliff face, it's Lake Bled they're modeling. Gorgeous.





Then we slept in the van for a couple nights in Salzburg, Austria. This is one of the big highlights. Cathedrals, dinner theater, castles, a cable car, trick fountains, rivers, Mozart, fresh breakfast of Brötchen and Nutella, Döner, ... good times.




We took the long way home, pausing in Oberndorf on the German/Austrian border for a pilgrimage to the place where Silent Night was written. "It's only a model." Then we drove through a corner of southern Germany, past Innsbruck and Kufstein in Austria, and on through the twisting hairpins and switchbacks of the Italian Alps during a furious rainstorm in a van with malfunctioning windshield wipers. Good times.


We visited Verona twice, hoping to get in to the third largest Roman Collesseum (the Arena) or the Roman Theater ... but being denied access both times. We did make it to Juliet's house (they added the balcony in the 1930s for the tourists). Even had the balcony been there originally, the plaza here is 14-20 feet wide, so there really wouldn't be anywhere for Romeo to have hidden himself unseen.



We ended our trip in Trieste with the Grotto Gigante and Miramare Castle. This was a most impressive castle, and that's after seeing castles in four countries. The decorations were really exquisite. This was the home of a Hapsburg Archduke who was appointed Emperor of Mexico ... where they assassinated him.


Then after 30 hours of travel during which Hy slept 30 minutes, we arrived back in Ithaca. We had a wonderful, magical time with Joy's family. We are so thankful they took the time out for us and fed us and played board games with us until the early hours and on and on. The difficult part will be sorting through the 1300 pictures and videos to see which get shared on here. If you want to see more, come on by and we'll regale you.

Life, Death, and Christmas

There has been a lot to think about this Christmas. I hope you'll forgive me for reciting the death toll for a moment before getting to the happier part, but in my more morbid moments it has seemed that Death has been delivering a great many telegrams this semester. If you'd rather skip all that, head on down to the dashed lines separating off Elder Wirthlin's testimony.

As you may remember, my good friend Evan Wade passed away earlier this semester. His death was quite sudden and unexpected. Timed as it was at the cusp of beginning so many wonderful things in life, it has made me feel particularly blessed to have been able to finish my own degree and be sealed to my wife. I commented to Joy the other day that I've been thinking of him regularly. I miss him, far more than I had expected.

Around Thanksgiving, Grammy had multiple strokes and the doctors also found there had been a heart attack at some point. This also was unexpected, and I find myself quite unprepared for the thought of Christmas without Grammy. In the last twenty years, that's been about the only time I've gotten to see her. Thankfully, Dad reports that Grammy is, to all appearances, fully recovered and doing miraculously well. But the realization of the fragility of mortality was hit home again. (This picture from the Ensign is of Grammy, though she doesn't actually need a wheelchair, then or now.)

A few weeks ago, Aunt Elizabeth died. I don't know that I ever met her or my great-uncle who is now left to mourn her loss. Uncle Calvin reported that she was "was released from the prison of her body" in hospice care after weeks of strokes and terrible pain. He is comforted that her death relieves her of the burden of that suffering, bringing her somewhere without the pain.

Last week our stake president succumbed to the battle he's fought with his cancer the last few years now. I didn't know Calvin Gehen well, but he had a powerful spirit with him at each stake meeting. He radiated peace and compassionate service, in part because you would sometimes never know how much he was suffering to be there. Being with him reminded me in many ways of the opportunities I've had to shake the hands of one of our apostles. Joy is hoping to sing in the choir at his funeral on Tuesday.

A couple weeks ago, Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin passed away. This was not particularly surprising since he was the oldest of the apostles. Though I've known a number of people who knew him (my friend Darrell married his granddaughter and my first mission companion was Elder Wirthlin's home teacher - which provided some interesting stories), I never had the privilege myself.

So today, since I'm sick and unable to attend church, I thought I would get around to watching Elder Wirthlin's funeral, which the Church has graciously put on their website. It was a beautiful service. (Other friends of Darrell will see him and his wife walking out of the funeral at 1:11:42-1:11:56. She's in a red sweater.) In my favorite talk that he ever gave, he told of the Savior's suffering in Gethsemane on Good Friday, reminding us that no matter how bleak the Fridays are that must inevitably come to all our lives, "Sunday will come." During the funeral service, I realized that he gave that talk just after his sweetheart had passed away, surely going through his own Friday. How important the testimony of resurrection morning is!

Among the words offered during the funeral, Pres. Boyd K. Packer shared with the family Elder Wirthlin's final testimony (it's about 30 minutes into the video), which he had spoken approximately the week before. Let me share a piece of it with you:
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From time to time if we are living worthily, the Spirit of God touches our hearts, and minds, and our lives, and improves us forever. The warm feeling penetrates our hearts, a silent, still small voice speaks to us, communicating through the burning of our bosom the knowledge given to us from God. It draws us closer to Him, sanctifying us and strengthening our desire to return to His presence. During such unforgettable moments, revelation comes to us and forever alters our view - sharpening our focus on what matters most. We sense more profoundly our eternal relationship with Him as the literal Father of our spirits. We also feel more acutely our complete dependence on the merciful atonement of His Son Jesus Christ.

I had such a revealing experience. It was Christmas time in Bavaria in the Alps in 1937. I have always loved Christmas. There is a special spirit about it. The chill of the winter air is the perfect counterpoint to the warmth that should fill our hearts as we contemplate the message of salvation found in the birth, resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I experienced that warmth many years ago while serving as a missionary for the church, just prior to the outbreak of WWII. As you might expect, the possibility of armed conflict was very intense, but as Christmas approached, our thoughts were drawn to the Savior. We rejoiced in the privilege of serving Him during that sacred season in the famous city of Salzburg, Austria.

On Christmas Eve, Elder S and I visited the village of Oberdorf, nestled securely in the beautiful Bavarian Alps. It was a clear, crisp winter night. We walked under the canopy of stars across the smooth stillness of newfallen snow to a humble little church where a familiar melody beckoned us with a message of peace and hope. [Pictured is the church to which he refers.]

Inside, a choir was singing in German a carol that brought warmth to our hearts on that cold winter night. Though we were far from our homes and families, we were filled with our Heavenly Father's love and comforted by His Spirit, as we listened to the calming strains of Silent Night, Holy Night.

Perhaps it was like the night that more than a century earlier inspired the assistant pastor in that quaint village to write the words to one of the most beloved hymns in all of Christendom. [He then tells the story of how the words and music came about.] As we listened to the choir's harmony while standing in the very same church where the first rendition of the sacred song was sung, we were spiritually moved. We were filled with the true spirit of Christmas.
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He told of how the Holy Ghost touched him and his companion at that time. As they walked the 15 miles back to their home, they spoke of a strengthened resolve to do what is right, to find a wonderful person with whom to spend eternity as husband and wife, and to keep their lives in focus with the principle and teachings of the Savior. He closed by saying, "I pray that our hearts and home may resonate with His marvelous message of love and peace during the holiday season. Forever with the apostle John, I testify that God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son...."

I've been looking forward to this Christmas all year. It's the first time I get to play Joseph. I've been a shepherd many times; I'm far too young to be a wise man; I've even been a dumb ox sometimes; but I've always looked forward to being the dad. No, Joseph wasn't the father of Jesus, but he was the man with whom God entrusted His Son, as He has entrusted me with a precious delight named Hyrum.

After all, besides death, this year has brought life. Wonderful, sweet life that has filled and changed our hearts in marvelous, miraculous ways. We are not the only ones so blessed. My dear friend Marcy and her husband have a dear little Emma after years of praying; our dear friends the Petersons just welcomed their third little one into the world; my former home teaching companion and his wife just received their first blessing; and there are countless more Corbins and Daniels and Timothies and Janes and Millies and more.

Each year, their families and friends will celebrate their lives, putting on cone-shaped party hats and singing old songs off key and eating good food and giving presents to each other because they are so thankful that this precious child is still with us. Every year, we also celebrate with funny little red cone-shaped hats, singing old songs off key, eating good food, and giving presents to each other on society's best guess as to His birthday. For behold, a virgin conceived, and she bore a son, and she called His name Emmanuel: God with us. I am so thankful that we all get together as brother and sisters, friends, neighbors, and family to celebrate the birth and resurrection of our Savior as well, whose sacrifice and sacredness conquered death, inaugurated hope, and promised peace. God be praised for the matchless gift of His Son.

How was your weekend?

As I read my scriptures on Friday, one of the songs I listened to was by the BYU Concert Choir: Death Shall Not Destroy My Comfort. Google informs me you can find a copy of them singing it on Youtube. I've always had a thing for glorious songs in minor keys and this has been a favorite. I thought to myself as I heard it Friday that the next time I had to experience someone's passing, I would have to sit in a dark quiet room and listen to that with my headphones on to get a good, healing cry.

And if you imagine I recognized that as foreshadowing at the time, you give me too much credit.....

Death shall not destroy my comfort,
Christ shall guide me thro’ the gloom;
Down he’ll send some heav’nly convoy,
To escort my spirit home.

Joy and I finally made it out to the temple Saturday. I consider it quite an accomplishment since the last few times we've tried to go, something got in the way. This time when something got in the way, we ran over it and just went anyway. We saw a lot of friends from our temple shifts there who loved to meet our prodigy (who is currently engaged in doing his best to climb/fall into the laundry basket and cry for help). The wonderful thing of going to the temple is being able to be of service to people who passed on without the opportunity to receive the full blessings of the gospel for themselves. It is a beautiful testimony of God's love for all of His children and His desire to bring all of us home.

(Refrain):
Oh, hallelujah! How I Love my Savior,
Oh, hallelujah! That I Do.
Oh, Hallelujah! How I love my Savior!
Mourners, you may love him too.

I was very glad for the temple -- it took the edge off of some of the pain I've been feeling the last few days. I don't know why, but I just really haven't felt well. At one point on our drive to the temple, I pulled over to give Joy a turn driving because I was starting to feel unsafe on our heavily rained-upon roads. Today when I got up, I was sick enough that I couldn't make it to church and it's likely I'll be calling in sick tomorrow. Hopefully I can get well before my defense next Monday. If not, well, my "A" exam was also done under an illness induced haze.

Jordan’s stream shall not o’erflow me,
While my Savior’s by my side;
Canaan, Canaan lies before me!
Soon I’ll cross the swelling tide. (Refrain)



Joy kindly suggested I lay down for a nap while she took care of Hyrum when we got home. I hadn't been down long when our branch president (church leader) called. My good friend Evan Wade had "crossed the swelling tide." I still don't know most of the details, but apparently he skidded on the slick roads and crashed into a tree.

Evan "yes, I like putting odd statements in the middle of my name when I sign off an email" Wade came to Cornell the same year I did to major in Engineering. I'm not entirely sure why, but I decided to watch out for him that first year - help him get rides, encourage him in the church, and try to help support him going on a mission. I don't know that there was any real doubt of that happening, but I wanted to look out for him. He went on a mission to Finland and came back here, happy to see me. I still ended up giving him a lot of rides, which I never minded. He was set to graduate this winter, like me.

I home taught him for a year or so before he had met Cassie and I remember very fondly an evening he and I spent together while Joy was out of town, just talking about the gospel and his romantic hopes, and everything. I was so thrilled when he and Cassie announced their engagement!

We were home teachers together over the summer and for this year. The last time I saw him was home teaching the Browns on Wednesday where he praised Cassie, talked about how excited he was to be getting married and looking forward to graduation and life. I dropped him off, oddly enough, at our place where Cassie was waiting for him, gave him the traditionally overfirm handshake we had developed, and waltzed in happy to see my wife without considering I might not see him again. He was in the military and planning on spending a few months getting trained in submarines. He had an appointment to meet with them tomorrow. It seems God has other plans.

He loved jazz, played the sax, and while his voice wasn't the smoothest, he had an impressive range and power. We talked about music a good deal together. As we drove together the last time, I mentioned wanting to rent an accordian or a bagpipe from Cornell sometime soon so I could learn them. I wonder if he ever got the chance to pick up a piece by Hovhaness I recommended to him?

See the happy spirits waiting,
On the banks beyond the stream!
Sweet responses still repeating,
“Jesus! Jesus!” is their theme. (Refrain)

One of the greatest parts of the gospel is the knowledge that my wife, my son, my brother and his wife, and my parents are all sealed to me. That is, even death cannot separate us permanently. We have the promise that if we are faithful to our covenants, we can be together forever. A similar promise extends to our friends: "And that same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy" (Doctrine and Covenants 130:2). Evan may not have been perfect (he was a bit of a flake), but he was a good man who was doing all he could to follow the gospel of Jesus. In addition to my grandfathers - Derrill One and Grandpa Straw - and the generations before them, I have the hope that I will find my good friend Evan "on the banks beyond the stream" to welcome me home.

Our hearts go out to Cassie and Evan's family! Joy and I have talked ever so briefly in hushed tones of what it would have been like for her had I passed on March 05. We pray for you all regularly and are assured that in time the Spirit will speak peace to your hearts, with solace and comfort that only God can bring. That's why His peace surpasses all understanding (Phil 4:7) - it comes despite and during our afflictions. How comforting it is to know that "all things have been done in the wisdom of Him Who knoweth all things" (2nd Nephi 2:24) and that God who knows the end from the beginning has said, "Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever" (D&C 122:9).

Oh, hallelujah! How I Love my Savior,
Oh, hallelujah! That I Do.
Oh, Hallelujah! How I love my Savior!
Mourners, you may love him too.

It's a Tag

Thank you for my tag, Marcyface. It goes very well with my working late to finish my dissertation and being in need of a break.

Ten years ago I was...
1. Serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
2. In Neubrandenburg, Germany
3. Training my golden (aka greenie aka brand spankin new missionary)
4. writing in my mission journal which just happens to be within arm's reach of me that in the week prior to today:
Elder Baker and I were just starting to figure out how we can teach together, but haven't yet figured out how to plan together;
I was learning about "nasal irrigation" because the doc wouldn't give me antibiotics;
I performed in two multifaith choirs (one Catholic, one Lutheran) in two different cities; and
I was hit by dove guano while singing Mozart's Mass in D.
5. Most importantly, ON THIS DAY ten years ago, my companion and I went forward full of faith, prayer, and fasting with a firm determination that one of our investigators was going to accept a commitment to be baptized ... only to have her ask us not to come back anymore before we stepped in the door. Despondent, we dragged ourselves around the downtown area, not knowing what to do or what went wrong. Suddenly, a man called out to the "young men in black suits," (mine was navy, his was charcoal gray). Herr Dennig ran up to us puffing and told us that he had a radio program he did and would we consent to be interviewed for it? He had heard many people wonder who "the young men in black suits and backpacks" were and thought it would be a good program. We got permission and the interview went amazingly well. In the prep for it, we taught him a first discussion. He came to General Conference (drunk) and during a talk on tithing asked our ward mission leader what a fellow had to do to get baptized around here. It was a day to remember.

Sorry if that answer was a touch long. It's a cool day to remember.

Today's To Do List:
1. Work all day and night on dissertation (check). Today I proved that c is orthogonal to x. That is big, important news because it means I'm DONE with that part and can get to writing again.
2. Exercise 1 hour (haven't started)
3. Do something to show Joy I love her (check)
4. Turn in the LDSSA forms (OOPS! Guess that gets to be first thing tomorrow)
5. Play with Hyrum (check)
0. Read scriptures (check)

Snacks - today or in general? I'll do in general.
1. celery & peanut butter (today) or banana & peanut butter (today) or apple & peanut butter or, best of all, choooocolate & peanut butter
2. Snickers
3. peanuts, raisins, and chocolate chips
4. couple bites of ice cream
5. toast with cheese

If I were a millionaire... (I will assume that I have already paid tithing and made other charitable contributions with this money, and that I have a million left over after that. That is, this is a wealth question, not an income question.)
1. I hear tell mortgage-backed securities are a pretty cheap investment right now.... Hey, they can't go any further down, right? ;D
2. Worry less about when exactly my dissertation gets done or what job I get after the postdoc
3. Save/invest most of it. We'll worry about buying a larger home when we get where we're going. Children's college fund and our retirement fund would get a decent portion.
4. If I were a millionaire, I would have great leverage in reassuring Joy that getting a new computer every 3-5 years is not extravagance.
5. Get our dryer and plumbing fixed.

Places I've lived...
1. Santa Barbara, CA
2. Eisenhuttenstadt, Germany
3. 10 square miles surrounded by reality
4. the former Deseret Towers' Q, R, V, and W halls, including next door to the room my mom lived in 20 years earlier TWICE
5. I lived in Heaven a long time ago, it is true. Lived there and loved there with people I know. So did you. Then Heavenly Father presented a beautiful plan All about Earth and eternal salvation for man......

Jobs I've had...
1. Research Assistant in: developmental nutrition, labor economics, and high theory econometrics
2. Asst. Manager at Little Caesar's
3. LDS Temple worker (volunteer)
4. Gardiner for my parents and the family next door who were out of state trying to sell the place
5. Daycare
6. Son, brother, husband, friend, and father.

I tag...
1. Husbands whose wives write more than 90% of their family blog
2. Shari
3. Joy
4. Tami C. (who probably doesn't read this, but oh well)
5. Dad (maybe give you some more encouragement to write post #2)

Random pics 2: Travels

I thought it might be fun to try my experiment again: letting the screen saver grab 10 random pictures we haven't posted and telling a couple stories. I'll do this again with just Hyrum pictures (of which it grabbed about 10 in a row), but tonight we'll stick to non-Hyrum. We did live before the baby, after all....

And around 1996 I lived in California with my parents just before going off to BYU for the first time. This is me practicing the organ at home while my brother's cat listens. She and Mom were my two biggest fans. How did we have an organ at our house? The student ward hadn't had anyone who could play in years and they complained that it was in the way of the ping-pong table, so the stake asked if any faithful, tithe-paying member out there would like a free organ? Ooh! Ooh! I would!
Mom's award-winning Rose Window afghan and one of her longstitch projects are in the background.



Speaking of Santa Barbara, while Joy and I visited the zoo one year, I spied in the distance this beauty of a house far off on another hill. I decided to show Mom what my camera zoom could do. It's just a lovely building in our foothills. I do miss Spanish architecture out here...


Around Valentines Day, 2004, I joined Mom and Dad at Walt Disney World Florida. Joy and I had some Serious Conversations online while I was there, where we "put our cards on the table" and said just exactly what our feelings were. Revelation came and prayers were answered as I studied Alma 32 outside of the MGM studies. We decided that some dating might be in order. But before it was all over, Joy asked for a picture of me so she could remember what I looked like. This is the one I sent.



Speaking of Disney, don't they do great castles?










Joy found some of her birthday presents last year! She's starting to get ready for my birthday next month. (I turn 30!) She is much better at hiding my presents than I am at finding them. Maybe I'd better start looking now....





Behind those trees is an amusement park in downtown Copenhagen. It took about ten shots to get even that much detail on the park. It looked pretty cool, but didn't open until the day after I left. It's worth clicking on the pic to see it up close.






This week for Family Home Evening, we went down to Stewart Park to spend time with the Halcombs and their son, Emmanuel. This is what he looked like about half a lifetime ago (for him) when he came to visit us for an hour or so. He always liked my hats and was amazed when everything was quiet in my office, only to see me suddenly emerge. He would watch the door and ask if I was in there. That was clearly a cue line if ever I heard one.




This is Schiller's house.
Who's Schiller?
One of Goethe's best friends.
Oh. ... That says a lot.
Famous German poet who wrote the words to the Ode to Joy, later made famous by Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
Ah. Thanks.




Hyrum's Great-grandma Elzinga made this quilt for us when we got married. We really like it.








And let's close off this brief jaunt close to home with some fall foliage around Ithaca.

So there you have it: Three of the four corners of the US, Germany, and Denmark. That's a fast trip! Time to get some sleep before the jet lag overpowers me.