Michael's Eagle

Michael earned his Eagle award just in the nick of time—on his 18th birthday! And we finally had his court of honor last Sunday.

We did not exactly live up to the scout motto of "Be Prepared."
1. Saturday night we realized that we hadn't bought a second mentor pin—Michael wanted to recognize two of his leaders. The award comes with one mentor pin for him to give, but we needed to buy a second one. Fortunately (?), the second leader called and apologized because something came up and he wouldn't be able to make it Sunday night. So at least we have a little extra time to get his pin.
2. We were printing programs and baking cookies just one hour before the actual court.
3. And then, we forgot to buy Michael's sash to sew all his merit badges onto. So we sneaked over to Melanie's house (she was on vacation) and stole her son Thomas' sash with his merit badges sewn on—for looks. We still need to get one for Michael. When Michael received his award, Ken Johnson mentioned that he had counted the merit badges Michael had on his sash; there were 27—eight more than he needed to get the Eagle award. Good job, Thomas! And good job, Michael too, since he actually earned a few more than were on the sash (which we returned to it's rightful place after the Eagle court).

The court of honor was very nice. Mostly family attended, but there were a few people from the ward too. Michael received an award from the Sons of the Mormon Battalion and got a cool neckerchief slide in the shape of an animal skull (cow? buffalo?). And I felt very proud of him when he received his award, and as he presented his mentor awards, too. Michael is a great guy!

(Unfortunately, we took our camera, but didn't take any pictures. Ah, well.)

The Great Kitchen Project

Today is the first installment of
The Great Kitchen Project


Days 1-4 (July 16-19): I'm still using the "think system."

Days 5-6 (July 20-21): I removed all the upper cabinets' doors, washed those cabinets and sanded them. I think that just cleaning up all those greasy dust bunnies that collect up top should count as a remodel all by itself. Icky work! And after all my scrubbing, the electric sander still removed an amazing amount of built-up goo. It occurs to me that sanding your cabinets is a truly marvelous way to get them clean. Of course, this may lead to problems in the size of your cabinetry after a while.

On Day 6 (yesterday) I also removed the hood/vent from above the stove, thinking that if I really wanted to do a good, beautiful, professional-looking job I would paint behind the hood too. And, besides, it really (really) needed some extra scrubbing. When I saw the idiotic—and probably not quite code—way the thing was wired, I changed my mind about my "professional" paint job that would include painting behind the hood (because I also saw that it would include re-routing the wires in a decent way and doing a major wall repair. Just keep that hidden behind the hood, thanks). I did still label all the wires with different colored markers, and some with different types of tape, and took the hood down and spent an hour and a half scrubbing it. Unfortunately, while I was cleaning, some of my tape slipped off of some of the wires. I put the sparkly-clean hood back, but how on earth do the wires go back together?

Day 7 (July 22): Bruce is trying to figure out and repair my hood-wiring fiasco—apparently the wires connected to the hood are also connected to the outlet we use for the stove. Fortunately it's just a regular outlet and not a super-duper 220 outlet (because we have a gas stove); so we could plug it into another close-by outlet. Still, we gotta get that fixed!
And today I need to get the kitchen clean before I can really do anything else. Perhaps I'll sand the doors today, if there's time after the cleaning and the mom-stuff.

Exciting!

I am going to remodel my kitchen! Well, at least I am remodeling everything that can be done with paint. That counts, doesn't it? And I am so excited!

I have discovered that I am simply the kind of person who is just plain-old happier with a big project to keep my brain—and my hands—occupied at all times. Well, I've known this for a while. But it's sinking in more that this is not such a bad thing. So I'm going to re-do my kitchen.

Later today (when the kitchen is clean) I will take some "before" pictures to post. And I'll keep you posted as the project rolls along (watch the sidebar). Wish me luck!

Notice the mauve countertops, yellowish, piney-colored cabinets

and white walls. And the curtains—when all else is done,

they may need a change, too.

Would YOU Tell?

Do you ever feel like . . .

When you have a new project or idea or grand plan in the works, do you not want to tell people about it? I mean, just in case it doesn't work out or . . .

No, because telling someone else might just jinx everything?

Weird, maybe. But I'm like that.

So Bruce and I have all these things that we're thinking about, and trying to figure out, and planning, and working on. BIG stuff! And I'd kind of like to tell, but not really. Which is too bad, because maybe an outside opinion would help things to gel. But maybe outside opinions would just wreck everything.

Nope. Just have to keep it under my hat a while longer. And hopefully I won't burst from thinking, and planning, and wondering how everything will really all turn out.

Love and Marriage

When I was growing up, the story I heard most often and liked the best was the story of my parents meeting and getting married.

Dad had a dream before he left for his mission; he saw his wife and his family, and he knew that his wife would be from another country. My mom, Dolores, was born in Brasil; and my dad, Orlin, is from the United States. Dad served a mission in Brasil and, as Mom puts it, she was his souvenir.

But I'll just tell you the story the way we heard it as we sat around the dinner table (and if I get it wrong, Mom will just have to excuse me because I'm going entirely by memory):

Dolores was engaged to another young man in Brasil when she first saw Orlin. She says that she was walking along and looked up and saw a missionary on the steps of the church, and she thought, "I'm going to marry that missionary with the glasses." So she went home, and broke off her engagement to the unfortunate Brasilian guy. (This was the most frequently repeated, and my favorite, part of the story.)

Mom would say about that missionary with the glasses, "He was so good-looking, and he had lots of thick, wavy hair."

Later Dolores found out that another girl was also interested in Elder Johnson; this girl was even knitting him a sweater. So Dolores went to the nuns, who were great friends with her mother and her family, and asked one of them to knit a sweater for her—a blue one, I think. I believe Dolores' gift to the young Elder Johnson was finished first; and I believe it was many years before he found out that Dolores hadn't knitted it herself. But to make doubly sure the other girl didn't get in the way, Dolores told the mission president that this girl was very interested in Elder Johnson. I believe the mission president got the message confused and thought that Dolores was interested in Elder Johnson; either way, Elder Johnson soon got a transfer to another area in the Brasil mission.

Orlin recalls that one day another missionary was showing a home movie (maybe a gift from home?). It turns out that Orlin's family knew this other elder and so their pictures were in the movie too. Orlin says,"When I saw the pictures of Esther (his sister) I thought, 'I like Dolores as much as I like Esther.' "

Before Orlin went home he was able to visit Dolores' town again for a little while. And then he was off to the states again. Back home, he wrote to her and asked her to marry him! And she said yes! So her parents allowed her to go to the states, but to be sure everything was on the up and up they sent her sister, Helena, as a chaperone. They stayed with Orlin's family.

Because Dolores hadn't been a member of the church for a full year, and because of some kind of mix-up getting her records to the states, she wasn't able to get a temple recommend. Orlin was getting a little frustrated with the waiting because he would soon be going to Germany with the Army. Finally he told his mother (who, at the time, wasn't too excited about him marrying a foreign girl) that if they couldn't get married in the temple they would just go to Las Vegas. My Grandma Johnson didn't want that to happen—if they were going to get married, it would be in the temple! So she called church headquarters, and my parents were interviewed by President David O. McKay, and Mom got her temple recommend. They were married in the Manti Temple on July 8, 1953 (I think Mark E. Petersen was their sealer). Three days later Orlin went to Germany. It was six months (or was it nine?) before Dolores could join him. They had lots of adventures from marbles in the marble cake, to having their first baby, to seeing the sights in Europe before they came home to the states.

That was the start of everything. Now Orlin and Dolores Johnson have eight children, 37 grandchildren (I think Mom says it's 42, but I think that counts the children of our Navajo foster sister), and 13 (?) great-grandchildren. They have been married 57 years today.

about 1977

As a side-note: Mom's sister, Helena, eventually married Dad's brother, Norman. And Grandma Johnson did grow to love my mom; she died in our home with Mom right there (in Mom's arms, if I remember right).

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Rachel was baptized!

Rachel was baptized last Saturday. She was very happy.

dressed in white and ready to go

After the baptism our family—Bruce's dad and mine, and our siblings, and Rachel's cousins—came to our house for lunch, cake, and birthday presents for Rachel. We had a nice visit with everyone, and then we all relaxed at home together for the rest of the evening.

shaking hands with Grandpa after her confirmation

It was a good day. I'm proud of Rachel!

I Would By No Means . . .

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Bruce and I took a parenting class. We took this class when Michael was about a year old, and the only child we had, and was pretty much no trouble at all. And now, all these years later, I remember one thing from the class. Well, I remember a few things. But this is the thing I'm talking about:

The teacher, Brian Winsor (a friend of ours), said we should train our kids to say something like, "Yes, my master," when we ask them to do something for us. Now it's not just what they say, because that might just be weird. No, it's all in how they say it. They are supposed to say, "Yes, my mah-ster," in their Darth Vader speaking to Emperor Palpatine voice. That makes it much better.

So I explained this to my kids a little while back—maybe a year or two ago. They didn't take me very seriously at the time. But now something is happening. They still don't say, "Yes, my master," but they do use quotes from other movies.

Lindsey says, "Yes! My Lord!" from the anime series Code Geass. Sometimes I hear, "Yea, verily, yea!" or, "I am craven and thou art my master," (my personal favorite) from The Court Jester. Jason has said, "You have but to hint at a wish and I would hazard my life to fulfill it." from Nicholas Nickleby. Michael prefers, "Yes, boss!" from Oscar. And Bruce tells me, "I would by no means suspend any pleasure of yours." from Pride and Prejudice. (It took Bruce a long time to remember that one!)

So they are getting it, plus they all show some individuality. And I'm willing to compromise too; they don't need to bow down to me every time, but it would amuse me greatly if they did it when we had guests over—you know, company manners and all.

The trouble is, we need more quotes; I've only listed six that get used occasionally, but I need nine to fit all of my slaves—I mean, my family. I'd still love to hear . . . oh, say, Jessica saying, "Yes, my mah-ster!" in her best Darth Vader voice.

But since that quote is apparently out of the question, do you know of any movies with great subservient schmoe quotes? Because I still need three more. ;-)