A perfect calm before the storm. We love our time with the Lughesworths.
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Saturday, August 30, 2014
Sunday, August 24, 2014
What the hell
Last Thursday was Wilson's court date. I was feeling calm, having been assured by our attorney that he and the prosecuting attorney had entered a plea bargain that would put the whole mess behind us within ten minutes. This is not what happened. The judge heard the statements and plea bargain from both attorneys, heard my report of what we are doing medically and looked at Wilson and said, "Son, you need to see the inside of a prison. You are 18 so you are going to the big boy prison." I think our attorney was the most shocked, the prosecuting attorney was a close second, and I was third.
Wilson was not. He had said to me the night before that he was going to jail. When I tried to assure him otherwise he told me that things always go badly for him and he always gets the worst outcome. In retrospect, I think he knew what the outcome was going to be and was not just being pessimistic. I, PollyAnna, was devastated and shocked. One of the hardest things I've ever done in my whole life was watching an officer walk my son from the courtroom to the jail. This has been the slowest weekend of my life. Time has crawled. It was hard to tell the other kids, our parents, the football coach and Wilson's girlfriend.
I pray so hard everyday that he will be safe and that this experience will have a deterring effect for the future. I have prayed that he will have felt the comforting power of the Holy Ghost. I pray that he won't be angry and hardened, but will be soft and humbled. I pray this is a turning point.
But if not, God still has a plan for Wilson. There will always be a chance for repentance. Someone has been through worse. My covenants offer me priesthood power and comfort.
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Wilson was not. He had said to me the night before that he was going to jail. When I tried to assure him otherwise he told me that things always go badly for him and he always gets the worst outcome. In retrospect, I think he knew what the outcome was going to be and was not just being pessimistic. I, PollyAnna, was devastated and shocked. One of the hardest things I've ever done in my whole life was watching an officer walk my son from the courtroom to the jail. This has been the slowest weekend of my life. Time has crawled. It was hard to tell the other kids, our parents, the football coach and Wilson's girlfriend.
I pray so hard everyday that he will be safe and that this experience will have a deterring effect for the future. I have prayed that he will have felt the comforting power of the Holy Ghost. I pray that he won't be angry and hardened, but will be soft and humbled. I pray this is a turning point.
But if not, God still has a plan for Wilson. There will always be a chance for repentance. Someone has been through worse. My covenants offer me priesthood power and comfort.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Grangeville visit
Family Reunion 2014
If something could go wrong on this family reunion, it did. Tony had a terrible call night and delayed our departure by 4 hours. Cooper had a major teenage moment and refused to ride in the car with his siblings, describing it as his living hell. When we got to Spokane for the rental car, we found out we were not allowed to take it out of Idaho. I pitched a ridiculous fit, embarrassed myself and prompted a sermon from another customer about "setting a good example for my kids, catching more flies with honey than vinegar and things could be worse." It was humbling and painful.
After a night in Idaho Falls in an attempt to refresh and rejuvenate, Cooper started throwing up violently, with what we think was food poisoning. We had to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa to give him a blessing on the side of the highway. We made it to Ogden and met everyone at the temple for the open house. We had been instructed to wear casual clothes and were traumatized to see almost everyone there in church clothes. We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting cemeteries and grave sites and hearing stories from Grandma and Grandpa. We wrapped up the evening at Windsor park with good food, frisbee and jump rope. Things started looking up!
On Friday morning we had our family fun run, a 5 K where our cousins RJ and Kimberly set all time records. Rusty beat Tony hands down this year, which will be a great motivator for getting in shape. After the fun run we were off to Trafalga for arcade games, laser tag and bumper boats. The kids had fun, but Tony enjoyed it the most, I think.
That night the adults enjoyed dinner at the Provo temple and a session together. It was special to be together with parents and our siblings for the second time this summer in a temple. It was Debbie and Rand's anniversary, which made our trip extra nice. The grounds were more beautiful than I remember and the evening was perfect. Later that night Grandma and Grandpa gave us this advice:
On Saturday we hiked Bridal Veil Falls and had a picnic. The teenagers went to the temple that afternoon to do baptisms for the dead. They were surprised at how long the line was and how quickly the baptisms were performed. A member of the temple presidency came to speak to them and shared that while most people remember CTR as "choose the right, he remembers it as "current temple recommend." We said goodbye to all our Lundberg and Burr cousins and the Dads took the remaining kids out for snow cones.
Despite angry teenagers, vomiting, forgotten recommends, miscommunications and rental car problems, our "temple focused" reunion was a great success. It is always worth the effort and sacrifice to strengthen relationships with our family. It is a great way to keep our covenant to build Zion. Zion is family.
Here are the highlights according to the kids:
Cooper--laser quest with the cousins and uncles!
Eliza--playing at the fun center with the teenagers!
Max--laser tag at the fun center
Marcos--playing Legos and swords with Adam
Tony-- jump rope with the kids at the park, time with his brother
We missed Wilson this year and hope that he made good choices while we were gone.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
After a night in Idaho Falls in an attempt to refresh and rejuvenate, Cooper started throwing up violently, with what we think was food poisoning. We had to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa to give him a blessing on the side of the highway. We made it to Ogden and met everyone at the temple for the open house. We had been instructed to wear casual clothes and were traumatized to see almost everyone there in church clothes. We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting cemeteries and grave sites and hearing stories from Grandma and Grandpa. We wrapped up the evening at Windsor park with good food, frisbee and jump rope. Things started looking up!
On Friday morning we had our family fun run, a 5 K where our cousins RJ and Kimberly set all time records. Rusty beat Tony hands down this year, which will be a great motivator for getting in shape. After the fun run we were off to Trafalga for arcade games, laser tag and bumper boats. The kids had fun, but Tony enjoyed it the most, I think.
That night the adults enjoyed dinner at the Provo temple and a session together. It was special to be together with parents and our siblings for the second time this summer in a temple. It was Debbie and Rand's anniversary, which made our trip extra nice. The grounds were more beautiful than I remember and the evening was perfect. Later that night Grandma and Grandpa gave us this advice:
On Saturday we hiked Bridal Veil Falls and had a picnic. The teenagers went to the temple that afternoon to do baptisms for the dead. They were surprised at how long the line was and how quickly the baptisms were performed. A member of the temple presidency came to speak to them and shared that while most people remember CTR as "choose the right, he remembers it as "current temple recommend." We said goodbye to all our Lundberg and Burr cousins and the Dads took the remaining kids out for snow cones.
Despite angry teenagers, vomiting, forgotten recommends, miscommunications and rental car problems, our "temple focused" reunion was a great success. It is always worth the effort and sacrifice to strengthen relationships with our family. It is a great way to keep our covenant to build Zion. Zion is family.
Here are the highlights according to the kids:
Cooper--laser quest with the cousins and uncles!
Eliza--playing at the fun center with the teenagers!
Max--laser tag at the fun center
Marcos--playing Legos and swords with Adam
Tony-- jump rope with the kids at the park, time with his brother
We missed Wilson this year and hope that he made good choices while we were gone.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Quick Trip to Seattle
Marcos and I took Wilson to Seattle to visit the Amen Clinic a couple of weeks ago. We really want Wilson to have every tool he needs to be successful and we were hoping the Amen clinic could give us both information and direction. It was a nice couple of days to spend one on one with Marcos as well and I enjoyed being with my oldest and youngest sons. We had a good time at the aquarium, ate some really good Chinese food and I had a couple of hours to myself to shop at the Goodwill. A very nice trip.
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Cousin ski camp V
We added a new tradition this year--temple visits! We did baptisms in the morning with the Wilson, Cooper, Eliza and Evan and topped it off with breakfast. Later that evening we met as adults and did sealings with Dad as the sealer. We finished that night off with a great dinner at White House Grill--garlic city! It was the first time I've ever seen my Dad order appetizers and pay for a whole group.
We met up at the camp on Sunday. Tony had to come up later because he was on call, but Cooper did a great job driving the boat , while I drove to camp. We had our kickoff Family Home Evening and blackberry cobbler and ice cream. The Mosquitos had us for FHE treat and they feasted.
Monday was the most fun day. We started it with waffle morning! Chelsea had buttermilk syrup and coconut whip cream plus all the toppings. After breakfast we were all raring to go and had everyone up skiing, wake boarding and wake skating with all three boats. Jill, Stacey, Kate and I also swam the river with our kayaking chaperones, Chelsea and Dad. It was blazing hot, and the water was gloriously smooth. Cameron got the ski course up. Dustin's new boat, "July" was awesome. It has a boom, a sound system, ropes and tubes. Both Cameron and our boat ran perfectly. Tony was a really good sport about pulling tubers. It was fun to watch all the naked babies on the beach. A big highlight of the day was Kimberly and I getting Chelsea and Stacey up on a slalom ski. They made it look easy and had total success.
That night we had to say goodbye to Mom and Dad who were headed off to the temple very early the next morning. That night we played a rousing game of marshmallow baseball. It was particularly fun to pelt each other with sticky mallows. At the campfire we made "s'more cones," delicious twist on the classic s'more improved by the use of coconut. Tony entertained us with gross medical stories and we reminisced about our past childhood memories.
Tuesday was more skiing interspersed with serious frisbee or Kan Jam games. Aunt Jill's "gak" was an instant hit with everyone. After a yummy BBQ dinner we took all the kids to "clay island" to squish our toes in the fascinating goo. Despite the mess, it was really fun. For campfire that night we played "minute to win it"and had Chicago Popcorn. I said goodbye to Tony and Cooper who were heading out on a backpacking trip on Wednesday. Cooper drove the boat and ignored a spiritual prompting to go to the dock. It was a good lesson when he ran out of gas and had to be towed by a nice lady into the marina.
We had a slow morning on Wednesday and packed up in the hot hot weather. Inevitably, the throwing up started and ski camp turned to barf camp as seems to be our horrible tradition.
My friend Corrie asked about the family reunion. I told her some of the highlights and she commented that the only thing she has ever felt envious of was my incredible relationships with my extended family and our traditions. Her comment has made me really grateful.
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