We got a call today letting us know someone wants to see our house. That is great news. I figure if we can just get a few people to come in a look at our house I’m pretty confident they will like it and will be able to sell it fast. They are coming tomorrow at 1:00. Hopefull all will go well.
Today Bryan needed to borrow my truck. I was about to go play Ultimate frisbee, so we exchanged cars. He need to get some fence supplies from the Home Depot. I’m glad I have a truck. That was a big part of the reason I wanted a truck. I knew how often I wished that I had one where there was work to be done and projects to be completed. I thought it would be nice to load out to people who might need to borrow it as well. Such was the case today. I even keep a key on a small pocket knife keychain just so others can take that one key when they need to borrow it.
Cade (my brother-in-law) had tickets to tonights Jazz game, but he couldn’t go because of a work meeting. So he offered them to me. My mom agreed to baby sit on short notice so Rachel and I could go together. It was a fun date night. It was their season opener, so they had some cook fireworks inside the stadium before the game. And the Jazz won, so that is always a plus.
This morning I woke up surprised. None of our kids woke up in the middle of the night. I don’t remember how long it has been since that has happened. It seems that if on the off change neither Gehrig nor Nolan wake up. Gracie will be up. Certainly having all of the sleep through the night so that Rachel and I could also sleep through the night is a tender mercy indeed!
While we were making dinner after church we got a phone call from Carrie (Rachel’s grandma). Apparently Burt (Rachel’s Grandpa) wouldn’t eat his cake they got him until there were more people to share it with. It is his 75th birthday. So after dinner we went over there and had cake and ice-cream. Rachel’s parents and brother also came up. As we wrote in the gratitude journal tonight, Gehrig, Gracie, and Rachel all said that party was the best part of their day. I always think it is great to visit family – especially granparents on the sabbath.
After cleaning the house and doing some fix-up projects, we went up Milcreek canyon, built a fire and had hot dogs and S’mores. I was surprised at how warm it was today. I was just wearing jeans and a t-shirt and I was very comfortable. It was very beautiful with all the fall colors. The kids had a blast running around and playing in the leaves. After we packed up everthing we thought we’d go for a short hike, but Rachel’s hip was hurting and my lower back was hurting (likely from Ultimate Frisbee on Thursday). So we headed back home. When we got home I saw our next door neighbor, Kelley working in his yard. The past two weeks he has been digging dirt out to expand his driveway. He usually has a brother or two helping him. But today he was all by himself – all day. I suggested to Rachel that I go help him. I was questioning how much help I would be with a sore back but decided to give it a try. While we were working, Bryan Petty and his wife were out for a walk and stopped by to say hi. Bryan later showed up in his work clothes to help out. We probably worked out ther for an hour or two together. It was a lot of fun. The whole time I didn’t notice any pain in my back. It is hurting again now though. I had the thought before that it wouldn’t hurt me if I were doing service. On the as I was walking back home and noticed the pain again, that thought came back to me. I sincerely believe that it did not hurt because I was doing service. It’s not the first time it’s been hurt. I’m sure I’ll be over it in a few more days anyway.
I joined a the social network site facebook over a year ago. I heard that it would be good for internet marketing. After signing up, I couldn’t see how it would really be useful to me so I forgot about it. Then I had some old mission friends in South Africa find me through facebook. It got fun for a while. Now it has become very active again as many people from my high school have joined all of a sudden. Also, I’ve recently connected with many family members I don’t see very often. It’s been like an unplanned reunion of sorts. It’s been fun to chat with some of my mom’s sisters that I don’t see often and just see photos and updates of family and friends.
Routines are a good thing. I’m sure that some could say that they can make life monotonous and boring, but having routines with children makes for a happy home. Plus, it makes it easier for both Rachel and I to put the kids to bed when the other one is not home. For example, tonight Rachel was at an relief society meeting. At 8:00 I say it’s time to read scriptures. We then read a verse (that’s about as long as we can hold the kids attention span), then we write in our gratitude journal. After writing in the gratitude journal we have family prayer. We’ve started taking turns – whoever says the morning family prayer, will also say the evening family prayer. After we say prayers, we brush our teeth. After brushing our teeth we read a book. After reading a book, the kids say their personal prayers. Then they go to bed. If we ever try to disrupt the order of things the kids will generally kid out of bed and complain about it. So we try our best to stick to the routine and things run smoothly.
Today I went to play basketball during lunch. I normally play with some old friends from 3M. Today nobody showed up. There is another group that come in and plays on the other court on Wednesdays. We call them the “pro-am” group. They take basketball much more seriously. I have played a couple times with them. Last week, for example, I played 5 games with them after playing 3 on 3 with my friends. They were also playing 3 on 3 and one guy was waiting to play. So I figured I would make it even so they could play 4 on 4 and run full court (this is going somewhere… I promise). It was a good game. It was tough though I was guarding Paul Milsap’s (Utah Jazz star) younger brother. He nailed a lot of 3 pointers over me and dunked a couple of times. We lost the first two games, but then came back to win 3 in a row (yes this has a point too…). So today, I figured since I played last week and I didn’t get to play ball with my friends I would get in on a game with them. Everything was cool at first. They were running 5 on 5 and there were 4 of us waiting to play the winners. Then just before the first game ended, two more guys showed up. So as I was stepping on the court to play one of the guys tells me “Sorry, you can’t play. If we have more than 15 people, new guys can’t play.” At first I was dumbfounded that he would even say that to me so I just ignored him. My team was ready to go. But he keeps getting louder and saying I can’t play. Obviously, no one is really stepping in to help me out because I’m just a dorky white guy joining in. So, I start walking off the court (seriously, I feel like a kid getting kicked off a playground by a bully). Then I hear a little chatter and one of my teammates yells at me to get back on the court. Okay, maybe it is corny, but I can’t tell you how good that made me feel. The guy that stood up for me (James) is one of the better ball players there. I think he played college ball back east somewhere. I’ve played with him before on tuesdays a few times and whenever we’ve been on his team we’ve never lost a game. I don’t think he remembered me from any of the Tuesday games though, because last week he kept calling me “new guy”. I think after winning 3 games in a row last week against him I earned his respect at least. I didn’t hear the conversation that got me back on the court but I’m sure it was all him and the respect that the other guys had for him.
Now I must admit that I generally play a lot more timit with this bunch since many of them are bigger, which I’m not used to. Also, many of them have played college ball. I know one of the guys playing today used to be the point guard for the U of U a few years ago. So as we are just getting playing, James tells me to work down low. So I go down there and he dishes me the ball and I made a basket while getting fouled. He then came and said, “See, I told you. You can do this. You can play!” Unfortunately none of the other guys really gave me the ball and that was the extent of my scoring. We ended up losing after fouling 3 times on a game point and they made a foul shot to win (yeah, I wasn’t aware of this rule, but I’m glad it was nothing I did.) After that game, rather than stick around to wait to play winners again, I changed my shoes to leave. Someone came and asked why I was leaving so soon and James was there to stick up for me again. He told them I got here way early at like 11:00 and I had to go. He then said “we’ll take MIlsap I guess. As team mates we’ve won nearly every game. We’re like 115 (wins) and 3 (losses)” He then turned turned to me to give me high five acknowledging those three game we beat them last week.
Yeah, this may be cheesy, but it made me feel great today – especially from a guy I would have never expected it from.
I got up at 4 AM this morning and went to the temple. I decided to do an endowment session, which I think was a mistake because I just can’t stay awake that early in the morning. Generally, when I go early in the morning I do about 5 initiatories and call it good. I was really struggling to stay awake through it. I wanted to be in the celestial room though. When I got there, I began to pray about my job and about moving. I really wasn’t feeling anything. I opened my eyes and looked around at others in the room. I then got the feeling that whatever I chose to do in my current situation really didn’t matter to the Lord. I don’t want to say that he doesn’t care about me or what I do, but I thought back to the time I met with my Mission President – President Markus, I was I leaving my mission. I expressed to him my concern about what to do when I got home and what career path to choose. He said that it really didn’t matter. I could do whatever I wanted to do. My career would just be a vehicle to provide opportunities to serve in the church. As we have made choices lately to put our house up for sale and leave this area (which I love) – It’s not that important that we stay. Yes, I am currently the Elders quorum president, but if I left, the Lord would find another to fill this role and it would be a good opportunity for them. Likewise, whereever we choose to move to, the Lord will have another opportunity for me to serve somewhere in his church. There may be times we the Lord wants us in a certain area, but I don’t think at this time it matters much. My most important calling will be husband and father, and I can do that anywhere.
So getting back to the celestial room. I was looking at others and I got the feeling that there were people in that room with REAL problems. Perhaps there were widows, or single sisters who were lonely. Men with great anxiety. My “problem” wasn’t really a problem. It was simply a choice. I felt very blessed at that moment.
I got up and left to go home. As I was walking out to my car, It was still dark. I noticed a red flashing light – like the ones we used to put on our bikes as missionaries. As I got closer I noticed it was a blind sister making her way up the street with her white cane on her way to enter the temple. Again, I thought to myself, I don’t have any problems. I have a blessed and often easy life. I am grateful for trials that strengthen me, and I am equally grateful when I don’t have trials to burden me.