Beneath the Wraps

            When Roland’s oldest two girls were ten and eight, we were finally granted overnight visitation.   At the time – though our visits weren’t as often as the courts had assigned – I fully believe that I knew those girls better than either of their biological parents – and I really didn’t know either that well.         Frances, at the time, claimed she loved school.   She loved to paint and draw.   Her artwork was actually quite good.   She was easily amused, had quite an annoying laugh, and was very loud.   She often repeated catch phrases or tag lines – I think more to help herself understand them.   She had learned the shark song and sang it often as she moved her hands for each family member. “Grandpa Shark” was her favorite.         Jenna is ten.   She used to love school.   She currently likes ...

             There are some members of the Church who often feel that they have served in a position forever or feel like others have.   To the best of my knowledge, there have been only two lifetime callings.   That is apostle (who either passes away while holding apostleship calling or goes on to be Prophet and serve in that calling even after death) and stake patriarch who (to the best of my knowledge) continues to serve as patriarch even if he moves to another location becomes patriarch in whatever stake he moves to.             So as far as ward callings go, there is no lifetime calling – though I have often wondered if the ward librarian feels overlooked and lost in the shuffle.   I’m not a ward librarian, but that is kind of how I view the ward librarian – especially when the library itself is located in such a conspicuous place that more than half ...

         Just as Roland is about to leave this morning, Jenna informs me that she has drama club.   Her drama club has been meeting each Wednesday morning for about the last two months.   But I had forgotten.          She was dressed minus her shoes.   I was still in my pajamas.   Roland doesn’t like to drop her off so early and have her wait in the dark by herself.            It does seem odd that we would have him drop us off at 6:30 – an hour before drama club starts – but we have to leave about 5 minutes after Roland just in order to get on a bus and still have time to walk from the bus stop to the front of the school – which is what we had to do this morning.          Actually it was more like ten minutes.   I did try to hurry myself as Jenna stood a...

Pie Making          I can’t find a reference to mom’s traditional pie making event. I suppose it could have started with her children.  I do recall having assisted with pies at least once in my childhood.   Kayla says she remembers a time when it was just her and Corey that did it with mom.   I don’t think I ever viewed it as an actual tradition until Ellen and Kimball were small.             My mom made a huge assortment of pies on the Wednesday before   Thanksgiving each year.   The grandkids looked forward to assisting with rolling out the dough and filling the pie with whatever they chose.               We’d have apple pie, banana cream pies, coconut cream, chocolate cream, cherry, lemon meringue and of course, pumpkin.   More pies were added to the dinner each time new grandkids wer...

            After Jenna learned to read, she was magnetized to Piggie and Gerald Books by Mo Willems. We read every single one.   We would take turns voicing Piggie and Gerald and we would act out their characters.   She enjoyed every minute.             She reads chapter books now but will still spend time in the children’s section of the library and take a huge stack of books that Mo Willems has written and ask me to read with her.               She doesn’t check them out anymore.   We just read them at the library.   Last night we had plenty of time.   We had arrived at the library an hour and a half before the reading group would start.   She had at least two Piggie and Gerald books that we had never read before.        ...

The Sandy Starships Theater opened December 1980. It was a four-screen theater in a strip-mall in Sandy, Utah. The theater had a futuristic design, as if it were a spaceship, and even had a robot mascot. The Sandy 9 theatres became the dollar scene and patrons stood in line on the lit up “space station” floor waiting in line for the new releases that were shown at the Sandy Starships theater. Starships closed after its 20-year lease expired in November 2000.   But long before it closed, the once hip full price theatre tapered off to dollar prices.   The coolness had worn off. The starship had lost its appeal before it was even a decade.   What was once prestige had earned “junkie”, “dirty” and “cheap”. The Starship failed though Sandy 9 remains. There are several landmarks that seem aged and run down – either the land has shifted or our desires have.   We find something better, more satisfying, less costly – or perhaps it’s just the economy tha...

We have not ridden the bus this week as Roland has taken a use-it-or-lose-it vacation.   He has been driving Jenna to school each morning. He had wanted to go see a movie on Monday.   We went to the 12:00 showing and sat through the previews.   The projector (or whatever device they use now) was not working correctly.   We had a choice to wait for the 1:00 or return at a later time.   We learned that it was a three-hour movie.   Three hour movie!   I didn’t want to sit through a three-hour movie!   We couldn’t wait for the 1:00 showing because Jenna gets out of school at 3:20.   But Roland still wanted to see it.   So we returned the next day.   He kept telling me that the movie was only 2 hours and 49 minutes.   That’s more than three hours when sitting through 20 minutes worth of ads and previews. The movie is LOOOOONNNG – I think there is much that could have been edited.   I also thought ...