Home Teaching

I took Ethan Home Teaching for the first time yesterday. We were both really excited, but I should have anticipated that it would be a challenge. I was already very tired from having started work at 4:30am and I knew I would have to go back to sleep right when we got home, so that I could be back at 10pm to work the midnight shift.

I had Ethan prepare part of the lesson. He behaved very well for the first two minutes, then the lesson devolved into noisy play time with the other kids complete with throwing things, running across the couch and sprawling out on the furniture.

We were teaching the family how to have Family Home Evening with kids, and I think they got a pretty accurate picture, thanks to Ethan. Mission accomplished.

Future dentist

A couple of weeks ago Haley lost her first tooth. This was something that she had been excited about ever since Ethan lost his first tooth about a year ago. It was kind-of strange for me, though, because she never mentioned that she had a loose tooth. I asked Jenny if Haley had told her, but she hadn't known either.

Evidently, Haley felt the tooth wiggle when she was eating breakfast that morning, then went into the bathroom, grabbed the tweezers, and yanked the tooth out. No joke.

Olde English

This morning Ethan said the prayer for breakfast and he tried to use formal English for the first time. Of course, it didn't come out well at all; but, hey, most adults struggle with it. Heck, I struggled with it when I first joined the Church. I think it is some kind of weird initiation rite, or something.

I have come to realize that none of us really knows how to use the terms appropriately. We just sprinkle some "thee's," a few "thou's" and a dash of "thine" in with our prayer, and call it good.

So, my question is: to what extent should we use these terms?

Growing up, prayer was more of a general expression of gratitude for the good things we had, but it was very rarely directed at a particular deity. So, when I was introduced to the way Latter-day Saints prayed it was a very strange experience. I remembered a few terms from some Shakespeare that I read in High School, that I tried to throw in the mix. I think there was even a dost in there somewhere. At any rate, it wasn't quite what people were used to hearing.

I think that I became really dedicated to using old English after my mission. It sounded something like: Wilst thou remember thy servant who dost thy will. That's a rough approximation. The problem I ran into is the dang language barrier. Nobody talks like that anymore.

So, how do we know to what extent to use those terms? Maybe just a little dab'll do.

Turnstiles for Fast Sunday

I know we've all endured a wide variety of testimonies on the first Sunday of the month. The travel-mony, the story-mony, the grateful-mony, the political-posturing-for-local-government-mony. It seems like no matter what our local leaders say regarding the proper bearing of testimonies, given an open invitation, people will say whatever they want. Like the guy in my ward last month who counseled against the evils of canned vegetables. (Not the way the Lord intended us to enjoy our greens...)

Therefore, I propose a solution. Install turnstiles on the way up to the pulpit and issue every member an electronic access card. This way the Bishopric will have something to hold over your head when they request that you not bring up the revelation your great uncle had regarding reinstating polygamy.

An additional benefit that can be gained is added security for those presiding over the meeting. I'm not talking about protection from gun-weilding psycho's, but something more clandestine: the sleep-deprived young mother who charges the pulpit after hearing the "reverence in Sacrament Meeting" talk for the third time.

I'll volunteer my ward as the test ward.

Porter's Airport Adventure

I took Porter to Boeing Field yesterday as part of my effort to spend one-on-one time with each of the kids following my prolonged absence in Oklahoma City. We visited the airport fire station and we went up into the tower.

One of the firefighters let us get into the big new firetruck:


And let Porter shoot the big hose:


We got to try on a real firefighter helmet (much heavier than Porter's plastic one) and tour the fire station.

After spending time at the fire station, we went up to the Air Traffic Control Tower to see what Dad does everyday (yes, that's a real Air Traffic Control Doughnut).


While we were at the airport, a historic B-17 was giving rides around the Sound to passengers waiting at the Museum of Flight. On one of the approaches that the B-17 was making, there happened to be an F-18 approaching the airport at the same time. The controller who was working asked the two aircraft if they would do a simultaneous low-approach over the airport, and they agreed. I went out onto the catwalk outside of the Tower as they flew by.

It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. After the B-17 had landed the F-18 did a high-speed low-approach which I tried to photograph, but couldn't. I'm told he was approaching 700 mph as he passed the tower. This is the best I could do:


All-in-all I'd say we had a great time. Porter enjoyed it too.

Faux Traffic Controller

I got back from the FAA Academy on the 11th of April...about two and a half weeks ago. Since then work has constituted computer work, watching the happenings in the Tower, and lots of book work. Today I studied LAWRS all day; that's 'Limited Aviation Weather Reporting Station' for you non-FAA folk. It's a whole lot of weather junk that I have to memorize which I won't ever need to be able to recall (so I'm told).

I really want to get through all of the classroom stuff so that I can go and start the job I've been working toward for the last 17 months. It's an exciting time, but also a trying time. We've had to exercise patience the whole way through this thing, and it doesn't look like it's going to end any time soon.

Nonetheless, we continue on. Glad to have a stable job, and glad that we are all healthy and happy.

The Pee Pee post

I took the kids to the park this evening while Jenny was at Enrichment Night. I thought it would be fun to play hide-and-go-seek, so Porter and I counter while Ethan and Haley went to hide.
Once we found Haley, she squeezed her legs together and started doing the potty dance, yelling that she need to go potty. I told her that we would head for home and stop at a friend's house on the way if it was that urgent. She suggested that she just go in the bushes so that we could stay and keep playing. I told her no and that we needed to leave now if she hoped to make it home with dry pants. All of the sudden she stopped dancing and yelling and said 'Okay, I don't really need to go.' I thought she had just pretended to need to go so that she could go in the bushes (she's weird like that). Porter and I went to count again so that Ethan and Haley could go hide. When we finished counting I turned around to look for the kids. Across the park and in the bushes I saw a little white bum pointing right back at me. She was half hidden behind a tree and obviously trying to hurry things along. I pretended not to see her. Once we came around to where she was hiding and Porter found her she looked at me quizzically and said 'Dad, my pants are wet in the back. I think it started raining.' I could not get past the dead-pan look. Hilarious.

I gotta keep an eye on that one.