Lengthy Lewis Leverages Lexicon

Dear Family and Friends,
I guess I always start journal-type entries that way because of Anne Frank. I wonder if that girl ever had any idea how famous she would be. Anyway, some of what has been going in with us…

Today:
I had to conduct sacrament meeting for the first time in my young life. I find that amusing because I am the priesthood leader, our equivalent of an elder’s quorum president/ high priest group leader. By the time sacrament meeting was supposed to start there was one person there…me (Diana was home with sick babies). I had all the hymns chosen and put the page numbers on the board thingy, I had the sacrament table set and ready, and I had the little conducting worksheet as filled out as I could get it.
Just when I was imagining singing and leading and playing solo simultaneously before giving the opening, sacrament and closing prayers (giving myself a talk would have felt strange!) a lady walked in. She was quickly asked to give the opening prayer. 2 minutes later a closing prayer walked through the door. By the time we were done we had 6 members and me. We have this organ that plays the songs when you just push a button. So I played my first one fingered church songs. We made it through the sacrament…that’s the important part. I shared a few scriptures from 2nd Nephi 32, and we wrapped it up. (I found out the night before that I was supposed to get speakers…yeah right!) The whole meeting took 20 minutes. I asked Diana last night how many sacrament meetings she had conducted. She said none. I told her we were tied…until tomorrow. Now I am ahead by one. Unless major changes are on the horizon I think I will be able to stay ahead of her.
This week:
I am trying out subheadings in bold and underlined. It’s working out pretty well for me. How about you? If you disapprove, puff your cheeks out and squish them with your palms making a “raspberry” sound. Do it! I probably won’t hear. But if I did hear, that would be freaky, huh? I know what you’re thinking…”They have a place for people like you.”
That reminds me. I was working with Dallin and Nic DeGraffenried over in Aurora. Picking up rocks in the hot dusty field. Dallin and Nic are brothers and are about 14 or so. Dallin said something that didn’t ring true to Nic. Nic said, “Hey Dallin, you know where liars go?”
Dallin answered, “Hell?” no doubt thinking about 2nd Nephi 9:34
Nic’s reply: “Nope! They go to law school, Dallin!”
They get me laughing pretty hard. Dallin reminds me of me a little when he starts riling his big sisters (Don’t take it too hard Dallin, you won’t turn out to be a pansy like me).
Anyway, so back to this last week. I have been working on my masters degree. I finished up class attendance Friday. I was able to finish four classes in since May, and finished two in April, so things are moving right along and I feel pretty good about it. I just have to write a 10-12 page improvement paper for a reading assessment class…I’ll probably do that tomorrow. I wish this rambling family update could count as part of the pages.
Diana and the girls have been up most nights and most of the days too. I sleep whether I want to or not, I’m afraid. One time I cut my head open on a dresser corner, bled all over the bed, and never woke up. Oh, the ramblingness of it all. The worst part for me is knowing that my high school English teacher reads my blog! That’s why Heavenly Father invented the spellchecker!
The girls have been enjoying a little 8 dollar kiddy pool we put out on the front lawn. I splashed around with them one day. They started filling up my hat and putting it on my head. That night I set up the tent to sleep in the backyard. I was all pumped up to sleep out there and have fun. It was reminiscent of us kids sleeping on the trampoline with Dad, and in the morning, we all had congregated tightly into the sides of the heaviest object..Dad.
So we’re out in the tent. First Sadie wants some milk. Then Lara needs to go potty. As soon as she heads out, Sadie definitely needs to go potty. She needs to go right now. None of this came up until Lara needed to go. They are both gone for a while. Mahrin and I are hanging out, when Lara comes back. “Guess what Daddy?”
“What, Lara?”
“Mama taught me how to go potty outside! Isn’t that cool!”
“Wow, Lara! That’s pretty neat,” I say apprehensively, “did you go potty outside.”
“Yeah!” (If there was a punctuation mark to denote a tone of voice that says I’m so grown up and cool and outdoorsy, I would insert it here.)
“Why did you go potty outside?”
“The door is locked.”
“Oh boy!”
I went to check. The door was indeed locked. Diana felt silly when she found out she had locked out for the grizzlies and wolves to eat.
Next, we all get back in the tent. Sadie really needs milk now. Dad is getting peeved. Mahrin and Sadie are quite forward in saying they wanted to sleep inside. In we went. I could have forced the issue, but why?
Whitaker family reunion:
We had a lot of fun at the Whitaker family reunion. In a reunion famous for brawls and rattlesnake hunts (we raffled two rattlesnake skins this year, killed at the annual Whitaker paintball war, I helped with one…he went down in a paintball laden death. I nicknamed him the “Rainbow rattler”), this reunion was remarkably friendly. When we pulled up, I said to Diana, “Well, here we are at the Whitaker reunion. Did you bring your boxing gloves?”
Her reply was priceless, “I think it’s bare knuckles around here.”
But all in all, everyone was really friendly. Several uncles called me Roger. I’m sure he got called a few names as well. We got to see Mel and Kevin, Denise, Wenda and Steve, Rog and Hanna, and Lorelei and Jason. Every time I saw Lorelei and Jason’s Christian, he smiled a cheeser at me and says, “Hi!” all happy. There were lots and lots of cute little kids around.
We celebrated Grandma Whitaker’s 90th birthday. The town had a celebration, as well. Grandma stood up and sang “I have a family here on earth…” It was really touching. Then she says, “I had twelve kids. I’ve done my part,” she looks at her posterity, “Now it’s your turn.” She said knowing what she knows now and how much work it was to raise 12 kids, she would do it all over again. “Only this time, I would do it better!” What a woman! I don’t know how Grandpa Whitaker caught her, but she is truly an amazing woman.
I have now seen Murray, Denise’s son-in-law, do amazing things with a bobcat/skid steer and a rifle. Do not anger him if he is in control of either of these tools. He uses them masterfully.
I also watched Roger driving an old truck with no brakes, He did an admirable job of downshifting and screaming the engine. All in a day’s work for a label-maker salesman.
I am totally pumped that Wenda and Steve are moving to Kanosh. They will make wonderful contributions. I’ll tell you about some of Steve’s contributions when the statute of limitations runs out.
Future plans:
I’m still working the subheadings. Did you notice? Our future plans include eternal bliss, a rifle stockpile of no less than 30, and a racquetball court. But our near future plans include coming back to Kanosh for Lewis Hatton’s wedding to Tracy (sp?). That will be on July 3rd. That’s the day before the 4th. I will be helping build Emmy and Bob’s house in hopes of picking up some building expertise from Ed for much of July. Don’t tell Emmy, she might not let me on the site, then I’ll have to start sneaking.
Random thought:
I told Jack, a veteran teacher here, that my motto for the last week of school was, “Crack the whip.” The idea being that the kids would work hard til the last day of class. I asked him what his motto was. He looked at me, smiled, and with an evil twinkle in his eye said, “Retribution!” Then he laughed maniacally, and walked away.

Lewis and Diana News

Dear Family and Friends,
It has been a wild and woolly few weeks since school let out. We blessed Adelaide the last Sunday before school let out and Ed and Pam and Ray and Caroline were able to be there. Soon after school was over for the year, we headed up to visit Dan and Lisa while I went to my USU classes at the Richfield extension site rather than the one in Monument Valley. After a couple of days of that…I’m sure Lisa had had quite enough, we headed over to Kanosh.
It was great to see Ed, Pam, Bob, Emmy, Jake, Deana, Owen, and Jenell, along with all their descendents. Emmy and Bob’s basement was dug and footings were dug as well. I helped for an hour or two getting the garage footings ready. There wasn’t a rock to be bought. Usually you hit a few when you dig around Kanosh, but no luck.
After a few days of pestering Pam and Ed, we headed to Salt Lake so I could go to my USU classes at that extension. My professors joked about seeing me on the screen and wondering why al l the Salt Lake students had come to visit e in Monument Valley. We hung out with Anny and Stoyan for a couple of days and did some shopping.
On Wednesday we went up to stay with Dave and Ging at their Snowbird timeshare. It was a fun place with heated outdoor pools. I was amazed at how close it was to Salt Lake, and yet there was snow each morning, even though it was June. We spent a couple of days there and on Friday came back to MV (Monument Valley).
We went from pine trees and snow to red sand and 95 degrees. My classes have been going well. Diana is glad I’m around to help with the baby. I’m very glad she’s around to help the baby. I feel like such a caveman when a baby starts to cry and I can’t help.
Mahrin has been reading quite a few words. She correctly read the word “plaque” on a box in the store which surprised me. She has been drinking her formula through a straw which has very exciting implications for her g-tube future. Speaking of her g-tube, the other day, Diana was giving her a feeding standing up. Mahrin fell over. Diana let go of the syringe and all in hopes that no damage would be done. Unfortunately, it yanked the tube out, balloon and all. (There is a balloon about the size of a penny on the inside of the tube to keep it in her tummy. Needless to say, she was not a happy girl. The whole family, except Adelaide, was in the bathroom trying to get Mahrin’s tube back in. Dad pinned her arms and legs down as she writhed, Diana worked at the tube position, Mahrin was busy writhing and screaming, Sadie tried handing her random objects like toothbrushes in hopes of distracting her, and Lara made suggestions from near the door, very much like a backseat driver. Those times are no fun. We finally got the tube in, and we were very relieved. Once, the tube wouldn’t go back in, and the result was a trip to Primary Children’s Hospital. Beside the fact that it is 8 hours away, we have already spent over a week there for that tube and don’t care to return.
Lara has been very sweet today for Father’s Day. She pretended to be a doctor and bandaged up my arm and my leg. When I was lying on the floor getting my leg bandaged (I was not injured) Sadie jumped on the small of my back, and while jumping up and down was yelling “Horsey! Horsey!” Lara quickly let her know that it was not the time for playing horsey, that Dad was “trying to a-lax.” Lara earns money at her little jobs just like the other girls, and yesterday she cashed in at the store with a make-up purse. Last night at 11:30 I found their bedroom light on, and Lara was just finishing up painting Mahrin’s fingernails.
Sadie is getting better in her speech. Just as Jenell discovered long ago, Sadie’s troubles seem to slip away as soon as she gets outside. Sadie loves the outdoors. I have been setting up a timed sprinkler system in the backyard. As soon as they go on, those girls want outside in the water. We have had many red sand baths around here of late.
Adelaide is getting better at sleeping at night. Some nights are better than others. She can hold her head up and look around pretty well.
Love you guys,
Lewis and Diana and girls
pictures:
Adelaide in front of Hen Rock
Looking down 1000 feet to San Juan River at Goosenecks State Park
Family picture
Adelaide and Saylor Dandy, our newest neighbor
Movie:
Mahrin and Dad deal with sadness