Beneath the Wraps

          Funny how something can trigger a memory that doesn’t seem like it would even belong.   For instance when Roland is driving, he seems to go over the speed limit by five miles or so.   Sometimes he will pass the slow moving trucks.   Often people will pass him as though he’s not even moving.   We haven’t had a semi pass us but have watched some semis pass others.   I was recently reminded of going on my first river raft trip.   How would a semi remind me of river rafting you ask?   Well, let me tell you.           I had signed up for a program through BYU.   We were told to meet at BYU and we would car pool to southern Utah.   As it turned out, there were only three of us who signed up.   John and John Junior lived in St. George.   It seemed pointless for them to drive up to Provo just to go back towards their home.   Thus L...

          I was on the road all day yesterday - most of it anyway.  It seemed like I had been driving the same piece of highway for more than four hours.           The class for water aerobics started yesterday.  I had taken Jenna with me.  It was just us with the instructor in the pool - which was warm, though the air was not.           The library doesn't open until 12:00 on Mondays, and so we returned home for two hours and Jenna finished her packing.             At 11:30 I received a reminder to please have my girls' belongings to the leaders house sometime today (yesterday) and had planned for that anyway.  I told Jenna we would drop her things off and then go to the library.           After I turned onto our former s...

     I have gone camping before – several times actually.   I’d gone with my family. I remember times when Patrick and I were younger though not too much with my other two sibs.   I do remember when Corey and Kayla were both a lot younger, we did do a family activity where we stayed in cabins.   That’s the only time I recall camping with the two of them.      I’d gone to girls’ camp through the church.   When I was twelve and thirteen I went to a camp called Oakcrest.   We stayed in cabins.   I remember going to rough camp twice (we stayed in tents) as a youth and twice as a leader.   That was well over twelve years ago.      And then there was the one time we attempted camping as a family – before Jenna entered the picture.   Memorial weekend 2002 .   The boys were in a tent and Roland and I tried to sleep in the van.      Roland has actually gone ...

          As soon as I hit “publish” on my last post – the very second (I kid you not) I could hear Highness scratching at the door – which made a grand total of 29 minutes and 41 seconds that he had been outside.  Which is 28 minutes and 58 seconds longer than usual.           We haven’t had him for a full year yet.  I think he stayed out longer when the weather was cooler – but not cold.  After the snow melted and the ground softened a bit, Highness started digging.  He escaped too many times.  But he hasn’t managed to sneak past the board that we put up in May.  Too bad we didn’t know about it sooner.           The couple next door has a grandson that visits almost weekly.  He’s a handful.           Truman’s Nana invited my daughter over to play shortly aft...

She came to me the other night. "What is that noise?" "It's the fireworks (all month long)" "I can't sleep." That was in her bed in her room fan going didn't drown out the noise. Tonight she is in a tent in the backyard next door Flashlights going I can hear her friend talking and his Nana asking why don't they all go to sleep. I let Highness outside before I went to bed. He usually returns in less than an entire minute. But he's out there lying down. It's been almost thirty. He must be taking comfort in the voices of Jenna and Trume. Hopefully I will have more details tomorrow about this exciting campout.

Roland is a great father.  Perhaps he was not always there for his boys – I know that his “work” excuses got old after a while.  And there were disappointments.  But I know he spent quality time with them – I even have pictures to prove it.  And I know that there have been many other countless activities that I don’t have pictures for.  Like Klondike camping.  And Roland hates the cold.  But all the boys were with him. Recently he told Jenna that they would go “camping” though Jenna’s never really been camping before.  Both times it was putting up a tent in the back yard and roasting marshmallows before going inside. Initially they were going to set the tent up on Saturday.  Roland would start off his father’s day waking up in the tent - but when he came home from work (which is unusual for where he works) with information about a community fair that featured bouncy houses and free pony rides.  We could do only one or the...

          Whenever I have done a report or written a letter and I want to be specific about conveying my message, I have turned to my brother Corey for his input on how to change my wording so that it flows smoothly like his words always seem to.  My husband Roland does the same thing to me – asks me to type up his reports and change them around to convey his message.  So I asked Corey who he turned to . . . . He hasn’t said.           I turn to Roland when I need a solution – he is very creative and can come up with answers.  So does my sister-in-law.  Both have such logical approaches and can introduce such awe at the same time.           There have been times where something somehow didn’t make it into the plans – such as the spoons for ice cream during Jenna’s last birthday.      I told the children...