Monday, July 28, 2008

July Ending

Hey Everybody,

Our week was filled with as much adventure as Kansas is allowed to provide. We finally decided that it is time to say good-bye to our defunct computer. A graduate student should have a PC that is at least capable of word processing. Nothing inspires writer’s block like a system crash every sentence or two.

On Sunday Celia said the opening prayer in sacrament meeting. Ryan says we need to practice praying in English at home and we aren’t supposed to call God “you.” Her Spanish has been getting pretty shady of late as well. We would wonder if God can understand her, except he always answers her prayers. Ryan said the closing prayer, and did so in fluent English.

Isabella rebelled against naps. Celia almost used Bella’s middle name a few times. She rolls onto her tummy as she wiggles herself to sleep, then wakes up because she’s on her stomach. She hasn’t re-mastered the art of flipping onto her back. Here's proof. A couple in the ward gave us a bassinet so that we could use our front room when she is sleeping. After her growth spurt last week she is tall enough to smash her head into the side of the bassinet, which isn’t conducive to sleeping either. She just scoots in a 90 degree angle and pushes on the bassinet side with her legs. Believe it or not...she's asleep.

Ryan is now 20% done with his MPA classes. He doesn’t start his next class until the end of August. Meanwhile he daydreams of the “Redeem Team” and salivates every time he sees a commercial for the Olympics. 8.8.08

We made another pilgrimage to the temple in Winter Quarters. Ryan had a much more interesting shift than I did. Bella slept the whole time he was gone. Ryan almost ran out of diapers while I was in my session. Luckily we packed about 3 times as many wet wipes as we did last time. Ryan is going to start bringing spare clothes as well. She's worth it.

After going to the temple we pondered upon the essentiality of work. We think it builds character. Mark Twain’s unveiled diatribe about the despotic aristocracy in, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, has some good points about the results of a few families holding so much power over the voiceless masses. More than usually they turn out to be tyrants. We wonder if the dearth of “King Benjamins” throughout the royal pedigrees could be due to the effects of too much power coupled with no work. If you have any thoughts on this, we’d love to hear them.

We love you and miss you all!

Love Ryan, Celia and Bella

3 comments:

Milly said...

First, that is so funny about your prayer! I do that all the time still. Oh well, at least only I hear it. Did you mean the dearth of "king Noahs?" I ask because King Benjamin was the good king. Anyways, I was thinking about it, and I think that when anyone becomes so spoiled that they never do anything themselves, they become tyrants... look at all the little kids who are spoiled! King Benjamin was a good king, and he worked alongside his people. He didn't expect anyone to do his share in life, he decided his duty was to the people and not the other way around. At any rate, those are my thoughts.
Do you have callings in your ward yet?

Alicia and Ryan said...

I love your writing style.

I've got a lot of budding despots here at AR. Born to privilege, pampered, never told 'no', and encouraged to think they have a right to everything. They are out of control before they leave elementary school. Definitely not enough accountability for choices, honest achievement, and work.

Those are my 4 1/2 cents.

haley said...

c.c. hi, how are you doing, what's new? glad to see you have a blog.