Need I say more?

For those who do not live in Utah, the 24th of July is a state holiday called Pioneer Day, celebrated in honor of the Mormon pioneers arriving in and settling Utah on July 24, 1847. While for many this holiday is just an excuse to not go to work (although that's not true for everyone, seeing how Kendall still had work today) and to use up the rest of your fireworks stash from the 4th of July, it is a nice time to remember and teach my children about the pioneers and the hand the Lord had in bringing them here to Utah. Yeesh, that was wordy, but you get my point.

To celebrate Pioneer Day, I got permission to have Adriana attend a Primary activity held this morning, even though she isn't technically a Sunbeam (age 4) yet. Here she is in her "pioneer clothes." Note the authentic bright blue pioneer Crocs. The bonnet is actually one of Miriam's baby bonnets, but luckily Adriana has an unusually small head and was able to don it as part of her wonderful "pioneer-y" ensemble.

It was a fun morning. It was nice to sing the pioneer songs and hear the stories, and Adriana loved interacting with "the big kids." And yes, we will be doing sparklers tonight. :)

OK, based on verbal feedback I've been given, I know that are actually several people out there that are reading this blog. Please leave some comments! Whenever I pull up this blog, it's like opening up email several times a day and feeling like I have no friends because I never get any messages (which isn't the case--I just want blog comments). And yes, I know it's a bit hypocritical of me since I rarely write comments on other people's blogs that I read. I'll do better. So please, comment away! Reading those is half the fun (well, maybe a quarter, since I do really love this whole blogging thing) of writing a blog. Thanks. Hope to hear from you soon!

Miri-bug is officially a toddler!

While I already knew that Kendall was amazing, he has now reached a new level of awesome-ness because he fixed our fridge!!!! We've been without a fridge for about a week now, which made hosting Christine's bridal shower here at our house last Saturday an exciting experience. Last Thursday we scheduled for a repairman to come out, but we couldn't make the appointment until this next Saturday, July 19th. In the meantime, Kenny has been trying the obvious fixes (made sure the coils weren't dirty, the vents weren't blocked, the filter was new, etc.), reading through the manual, and researching things on the internet. I had even started pricing what a "new" fridge/freezer would cost on Craigslist, in case the repair and parts were going to cost too much. Kenny came through, though. After taking apart and putting back together our freezer, receiving an electric shock during the whole process (I heard the yell from the other room and ran in expecting to see blood everywhere), and doing other fix-it magic, our fridge and freezer now seem to be working just fine. The true test was when I bought some milk last night and then was able to have some cold milk with breakfast this morning. Cold cereal never tasted so good. :)

Our stake had a fireside tonight with Elder Eldred G. Smith, Patriarch Emeretis for the Church (he has given more than 18,000 patriarchal blessings!) and great-great grandson of Hyrum Smith. It was really a remarkable evening. Elder Smith is 101 years old, so I have to believe that he won't be giving very many firesides like he did tonight. Apparantly there are several artifacts from the Smith family that have been passed down to Hyrum's oldest son, John Smith, then to his oldest son, and so on down to Elder Smith. Also to put things in perspective, Elder Smith has great-great grandchildren right now who are as removed from (or as close to) him as he is to Hyrum Smith.

Elder Smith and his wife recounted stories from the Smith family and early days of the Restoration of the Church, as well as their own testimonies of the Book of Mormon and this gospel. There were several interesting items, including a handmade footstool that belonged to Lucy Mack Smith (mother of Joseph and Hyrum Smith), her dinner bell that would have also served as Joseph Smith, Jr.'s school bell, and a pair of Hyrum's prescription sunglasses.

There were two watches. The first was a beautiful silver pocketwatch still in good condition. It is the same pocketwatch that John Smith recorded that his father, Hyrum, hung up on a peg in the house right before leaving for Carthage. Hyrum then took an older pocketwatch and put it in his vest pocket. That second watch was there, as well, although it is dented and broken because it stopped one of the bullets that hit Hyrum in Carthage Jail.

I was even able to see Hyrum's clothing that he wore while in Carthage Jail. I was able to see the actual bullet holes in the homespun shirt, vest, and pants, and it was interesting to note that there was no blood around those holes. The lack of blood around the other bullet holes shows that Hyrum was killed by the first bullet that hit him in the face (there was still a great deal of blood on the front of the vest and shirt from that injury); this immediately stopped his heart, so no blood was pumping when the other four bullets hit him (including the one that went through his back and ended at the pocketwatch). I know that talking about all of this may seem a little gruesome, but I wish I had words to convey how very real and close it made those experiences feel for me. I remember the feelings of awe and how very solemn I felt when our family visited Carthage Jail, as well as Liberty Jail in Missouri, but there was something about seeing firsthand the actual results of the violence that occurred at Carthage Jail that made me realize anew the sacrifice that Hyrum, Joseph, and the entire Smith family made that day.

The last artifact that Elder Smith shared with us was a wooden chest that first belonged to Joseph's oldest brother, Alvin, and then Hyrum after Alvin's death. Alvin had made the chest himself, with wood from the Sacred Grove (the woods where Joseph Smith later saw and spoke with God the Father and Jesus Christ), and if you looked carefully you could see that Alvin had carved his name into the side. Joseph later borrowed that chest to hold the Golden Plates (which were later translated into the Book of Mormon), the Urim and Thummim (used to help translate the writing on the plates) and the breastplate that the Urim and Thummim fit inside.

I have a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet who did indeed see Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that he was instrumental with restoring the full gospel to the earth. I didn't go to the fireside tonight with any doubts I needed to quell, and attending tonight didn't change what I already knew was true. I wasn't prepared, though, for the overwhelming emotion I felt as we sang the closing song "Praise to the Man," and as I was able to go up afterward and look at all of those items. I'm so grateful I had the chance to attend this fireside tonight and meet Elder Smith. I only wish I had known to bring my camera so I could post some pictures here. It's so ingrained in me that you don't take pictures in church. Ah well. Maybe someone else from my ward was able to get some pictures tonight (with no flash, of course!).

Adriana is quite a character. Like many toddlers who have been indoctrinated by Nursery (or even sometimes, gasp, Barney, although for my sanity we don't watch that show in our house), Adriana seems to be incapable of cleaning up unless she or someone else is singing the "clean up song." However, she sings it slightly differently than the way I learned it. Her version goes like this:

Blackberries:
Raspberries:
Corner spot:
Here's my little pumpkin patch (yes, the space around it is big--I know pumpkins really spread):
Broccoli and tomatoes:

OK, I'll stop now before I get too carried away (I took 37 pictures outside this morning). You get the idea. Needless to say, everyone is invited to come have salsa, zucchini bread, and pumpkin cookies at my house this fall. Oh, and if you need me, I'll be outside gardening.

Yes, it's true, we do not have a cell phone. I can only think of one or two other people we know over the age of 18 and under the age of 70 who still do not have a cell phone (oh, and my brother, who is on a mission in Fiji, but I'm sure he'll get one when he gets home). Despite what several people have believed it is not because we are anti-cell phone, anti-technology (do you know Kenny?), etc. It really just boiled down to saving money and deciding that while it was something we would really, really like to have, it still fell in to the "want" category, not the "need" category. That, and the fact that I really like to talk on the phone and right now we get unlimited anytime minutes and long distance on our home phone for only $25/month.

However, we decided that it really was time to enter the world of cell phone owners when Kenny was unable to call me on our nonexistent cell phone to warn me that there were potential terrorists in the parking lot of his work and it probably wasn't a good idea for me to come pick him up with our two small, defenseless children. True story.

Last Wednesday I had planned to pick Kenny up from work so he could help me send some packages from the post office. His office is right next door to a Macey's grocery store, and I had come early with the girls to get some shopping done. Checking out took longer than I'd planned and we were running a few minutes late, so I decided that it would be faster to just walk over with the girls and get Kenny, rather than walking across the parking lot, unloading my groceries, putting the girls in the car, and then driving back across the parking lot to get him.

I was a little surprised when I rolled up to Kenny's work with my big shopping cart full of kids and groceries (it was one of the big ones with a car attached to the front for your toddler to "drive") that no one was coming out of the building. It was 5:10, prime "going home" time. In fact, there was a big group of people right behind the glass doors pointing at me and saying something. It was then that I noticed someone on the phone with the police, saying something about people with guns.

When I found out that someone had reported seeing two people with guns right there in the parking lot (disgruntled web hosting recipients?), I asked to come in to the building (yep, with the whole shopping cart, too; we were really inconspicuous). I told them who I was and someone went to find Kenny. Poor guy. He'd been pretty frantic with worry, knowing that I was coming and he had no way to contact me (people kept asking him why he didn't just call me).

It all ended well. No shootings, I think the guns may have even turned out to be pellet guns, and we're getting our cell phone.

A Tuesday in the life of Suzanne: woke up, got breakfast, showered and got dressed, packed Kenny's lunch, put Miriam down for a nap, read books to Adriana, watered the garden and played outside with Adriana, read books to Adriana, got baby up, squeezed some housecleaning somewhere in there, lunch, more books and playing, put kids down for a nap and/or "quiet time," made toast, evacuated house, made first call ever to 911, became acquainted with inside of a paramedic's truck, made dinner, put kids to bed, created blog. Really, just another day in the life o' me.