Thanks?

Jenni, I said, these socks don't match.  One is thinner. The stripes are different widths.

And one has a gold toe!

John, she said, they are both *black* socks!

Girls Camp

Jennilyn, Stewart, and Suzanna left for Utah on Sunday afternoon, a few weeks back. Sam left for Scout camp a couple of hours later. Then on Tuesday morning, Roxie Jane went to YW Girls Camp. Her first!

That night, I came home from work to an empty house. I grouted the sink, made a pizza, and played Lord of the Rings Online. That's a party night in my book.

But the next day, I left work and drove directly to the Girls Camp to spend the night. There are always supposed to be two adult men in the camp in case any priesthood responsibilities are needed addressed. Mostly, I just walked around and helped out.

Roxie Jane has a GREAT time.

I got asked to build three fires in 24 hours. I think I need to give Roxie Jane the official Stewart tutorial on how to build a fire.

This may have been the best fire I ever built.  Hardly any smoke at all.  Big, by the time I was done, almost six feet across.  Whitish-pink at the center, really hot.  And it burned for almost three hours.

When I am alone, service makes the time pass quicker until Jennilyn can come back.

Trek Miracles

We've been back almost two months from Trek.  Time for the event to seep into my heart, my soul.  It was glorious! Trek is a role-playing experience focused on the youth in our church.  They act out roles as children in a pioneer family, pulling a handcart over rough terrain and through close woods.  Married couples serve as the "Ma and Pa" of these ad hoc families, and for three or four days, shepherd the cart and family along the trail.

One of the women who was responsible for organizing the Trek asked all of the participants for some stories from Trek, the miracles that we experienced.  Part of it is after-action review, part of it is celebration of a successful event.

Four of our Trek Family, ready to pull the cart.

I suppose, when you come down to it, everyday is a miracle.  The Sun continues its ballet of fusion, and the earth keeps going around it.  We wake up, and our hearts continue beating.  But for miracles on Trek, as I ponder what happened, it's a miracle that we made it onto Trek in the first place. When we heard about it months ago, I immediately wanted to go, but Jennilyn didn't.  We discussed, even joked about me partnering up with another "Pa" whose wife wasn't interested (because how funny would it be to be on Trek with "My Two Pa's"? But that's not in the script; married couples only).

One afternoon in March, while we were finishing up an afternoon worshiping in the DC Temple, we ran into a friend, Tina Hartman, that we had only seen once in the past fifteen years.  Last Summer, Jenni drove up to the camp where our regional church group was holding a camp for the 12-18 year-old young women.  As she was setting up, another congregation's Pioneer Trek group came by, and Tina (with her husband) were the Ma and Pa of one of the carts/families!  A brief, thirty-second reunion, quick hugs, and the Hartmans were off into the woods.

So when we ran into her in the Temple, it was a miraculous reunion.  Jenni and Tina talked about Trek, and Tina was unequivocal in her praise for it.  The joy she felt doing it.  The instant love she felt for her Trek kids, the permanent bond that formed.  It was that short meeting that tipped Jennilyn towards going on Trek.  A strong impression during our time in the temple and a strong endorsement from a trusted friend.

Our Trek Family, pushing the cart over a HUGE BOULDER!

Months earlier, a couple of days before the previous Christmas, Jennilyn and I started walking five or six days a week, two or three miles a day.  A small miracle forecasting that four months later, we'd sign up to be a Ma and Pa.  Daily walking was the most fundamental thing stressed in our training to prepare for the Trek; it builds up the callouses and lowers the likelihood of blisters.

You can see all nine of our Trek kids in this photo, plus a few more.  I loved the smiles.  If you look close, you can see Sam 

(he was in the Orange family) in the background on the left, photobombing with a happy face.

The morning Trek began was a blizzard of activity.  We drove two hours to the camp, about 15 miles West of Gettysburg.  Once there, dozens of people were busy working, assigning carts, collecting gear, stowing it in too-small Cart bays.

But the greatest work was the kids.  Slowly, over the course of the morning, the kids assigned to be in our family (the "Brown" family, designated by our brown handkerchiefs) trickled over.  We introduced ourselves ("I'm Pa.  That's Ma.  We are simple folk" in a Pennsylvania Dutch cadence, to match my Amish Black Hat).  Jennilyn prepared (she says over-prepared, but it was perfect) a handful of get-to-know-you games.  It worked; in the moments that we played, I learned their names.

And this sounds corny, even to my earnest self, but we fell in love with those kids.  They were ours, our family.  I wanted them to be safe in the days to come.  I wanted them to have fun and learn from the experience.

I wanted them to embrace the opportunity that we were going to share together.

And they were AWESOME!  They totally bought into the premise. They were earnest, sincere, and guileless.

At our first break, Jenni got out a quilt and immediately began teaching the kids sewing skills. 
I think I was teaching the rest of the kids apple core-throwing skills...

If you've never role-played, it can be hard to imagine doing it without feeling an overwhelming self-conscious urge to giggle, or at least step out of character and make fun of everything.  I was cheered, grateful, and amazed that none of the kids in our family did that, not even a little bit.

So we spent the Trek really experiencing trail life.  When we gathered after dinner, the first night, my heart stirred with emotion, and I felt great parental affection for each of them. I shared King Benjamin's counsel to "Teach your children to walk in the ways of truth and soberness, teach them to love and serve one another."  I meant for it to be a clever play on words, about the walking, but I was overwhelmed with love for each of them, and a keen desire for them to really think of one another as brothers and sisters.  My words caught in my throat as I read that verse and struggled to express my deep sincere love for each of them.

Everybody pulled. Everybody worked. Everybody cooked! 

It is a common thing in our culture today to tease.  To be sly, clever, and quippy.  It's a way to seek attention in a crowd.  The novelty of being the first one to make a joke about something.  I'm a big fan of light-heartedness, but I am sometimes weary of how insincere communication can be.  Being open about sentiment is perceived as a weakness, and consequently, I see a lot of teen-agers who are very closed, very cagey about revealing their feelings.

So the last miracle of my Trek experience was how open I felt in our little Trek family.  Not once did I feel sarcasm or irritation from any of them.  It made it easy to fall into my role as their Pa.  I hope the kids felt it.

Because that is what I imagine our relationship with God is like.

Of course, everybody played, too. 

The men-folk got to pull the cart by ourselves to remind us how much the women were helping.

 

Suzanna on the women's pull

Here's the whole Trek Family at Kevin Ly's baptism.  A week after we got home, one of our Trek sons got baptized.  I am grateful for the miracle of trek, and the glorious good time we had being a Trek family.

And again! Somehow, wonderfully, our trek family had two young men in it that were not members of the church.  Felix Melendez joined the church Sunday, August 18.

We love those whom we serve.

What on Earth?

Seriously, what on earth are these? These are all of the banana peels I passed on my bike ride to work this morning. They are all within 1/2 a mile of each other. Notice the different states of dessication? I think they are all from the SAME DRIVER!

And I think if I am not careful, I will end up becoming a cartoonish figure.

Post-Grad Outing.

Jenni has blogged before about Johnny's; a sushi join in Perryville, MD that is absolutely dynamite.

It was where Suzanna wanted to go after her graduation to celebrate.

Like Jenni said, we missed the Ritchies!

It was an opportunity to order the biggest collection of sushi on the menu, the Love Boat Deluxe!  The sushi is the best I've ever had, but the presentation that Johnny puts together is amazing.

Look closer at that picture; the crab is made from a carrot.  The Turtles are made from cucumbers!

Suzanna was the guest of honor, she got to kiss the turtle!

My favorite moments from the dinner were when Sam (after initially being very dubious about this whole raw fish thing!) brought his plate back for more, and when Suzanna declared her octopus was delicious.  I am so happy my kids have mature palates, and trust us when we say, "Try this. It's fried soft crab with avocado, two things you're not wild about, but together they're amazing!"

Videos of Suzanna Walking Across Stages

Suzanna is DONE with High School! Yay! Here are some terrible, low-quality, but exciting-for-us videos of the ceremonial parts!

The Magnet program she is in had a ceremony two weeks ago where each student was highlighted for their capstone project.  Jennilyn blogged about the Gallery Walk.  You can see Suzanna shaking hands with the Program Administrator here.

This is Tuesday at the Graduation.

We are very proud of her, but excited to see what she does next!

I Find Myself Strangely Nervous.

I've had half my kids graduate. This should be old hat.

But I am really wound up about Suzanna graduating tonight. This will be her roommate at BYU.  They are going to have so much fun.

I am really proud of her.  This is her at the seminary graduation Sunday night.

Have we done everything we were supposed to do? Does she know how much we love her? Does she know how amazing she is?

I will miss her so much when she goes to college, but I am so happy for her.

 

My Secret Corner Sidewalk

Some people have secret gardens.  Secret Recipes.

I have written before about my secret sidewalk corner.  We put furniture out there that we no longer want and

>POOF<

It disappears!

It's hard to see through the branches of the redbud tree, but that's the big black vinyl couch that was in our front living room out there last July.  Hottest day of the summer and it only lasted two hours.

We've dispensed with four or five different sets of shelves and dressers, a dehumidifier, a (non-working!) treadmill, chairs, couches, loveseats.

When Mrs. Landbeck says, "Time for it to go," we do not hesitate.

Last Monday was a corner day.  This photo is of some stuff I set out Saturday morning.  A bunkbed frame (with no mattresses or mattress-supports).  In the ten minutes it took Stewart and I to drive to my Dad's house and back, the bikes were gone.  Ten minutes later, a pickup pulled along our driveway to thank me for the bunkbed frame.

I put more things out Monday, the row of furniture stretching halfway down the front of our house.  Well, not really half-way, but you know, it was like thirty feet.  It started to disappear before I could get out there to take a picture!

I was dumb-founded at the things people took.  And old chair with some of the side cushioning eaten/taken away by critters (probably for a nest somewhere).  Four chairs missing their seats and backs, in partial states of re-finishing.

It was good to divest, and good to pay forward to someone else.

WARNING! Do Not Erase (Please)

OK, who remembers which kids drew this?  It was on the basement chalkboard at our house in Bailey Road.  Actually, this is the second iteration of the picture, it was drawn once, and then someone erased it, leading to gnashing of teeth and wailing of tears (hence, the warning to not erase).

Two things of note.  First of all, there was a time when Katamari Damacy was a really big deal in our house.



Second, we removed the chalkboard from the basement family room wall in our Forest Hill, MD house, moved it (drawing intact) to the garage of our Aberdeen, MD house, and it has been there for five and half years.  Yes, that's right, I pulled it out while cleaning the garage on Memorial Day.  What a treasure.

I have the best family ever.

Stewart's Leaving and Returning.

 A photo from Christmastime.  We have been very grateful for the people in Montana who have housed Stewart, and who have forwarded photos of him occasionally.

These are the two companions from Stewart's final few weeks. The apartment they were using was given over to a pair of Sister missionaries, so Stewart spent the last two weeks staying in the dorm area of the mission home.

Friday night was when Stewart was due to fly home.  Jenni loves balloons, so Stewart's return Friday night was a good reason to have some! I think Sam looks more dubious here than he actually was.  It was *really* late Friday night.

Suzanna made this AWESOME banner all by herself.  Now that I think about it, I'm not sure when she had the time, between AP tests and other school work  But thank you Suzu!

We watched people coming up the hallway for five minutes.  Every guy in a white shirt or a suit was suspect.  Finally, he emerged!

 Suzu was great, running to give him a hug.

The reflective tape glared out on a bunch of our photos of him.  But he looked great!

Saturday morning, our Stake President had us come to his house to release Stewart.  There was a very ceremonial moment when President Halsey asked Jenni to remove Stewart's nametag.  I think she might have teared up a little.

We are glad he's back!

Campout Service Nature Discovery!

Found this pretty ringneck snake under a rock while working at the campground where we will be doing our trek excursion in six weeks.