Tuesday, July 22, 2008

A Week of Firsts


Ryan got an A in his first class. He still has two days left of his second class and just broke the seal on his text book. He needed to use it for a paper he was writing. Despite his aversion to reading, Ryan has now suggested that we read books together. Maybe he has repented. He has sworn off TV, Japanese game shows and all. We will better our minds with the likes of Mark Twain and George Orwell.

To kick off the grand opening of the Harvey read-a-thon, we walked to the Watson Library which holds KU’s humanities collection. It is the most wonderful building in the world, short of the temple. Books, books and books fill every corner of its magnificent edifice. I would have taken home more than two of them, too, except it took us almost two hours to find them.

Tennis is another unexpected side effect of not watching TV. We debuted on Friday afternoon, not to be thwarted by 87% humidity, a fussy baby, rain and a hamstring injury. Our record longest volley (can you say that in tennis?) was 31 straight hits. Too bad we didn’t try this sooner. We might have tried for the Olympics.

The best thing about libraries and tennis rentals at KU is that they are free. Ryan was just informed that tuition has been raised by almost 500 dollars per semester. Ryan has just accepted his first ever school loan. We both almost cried. Our budget spreadsheet will need considerable tweaking.

Bella enjoyed her first trip to the park, as evident in the picture above.

This was Celia and Bella’s first of many outings with the 1st and 2nd ward play group. We hung out in the park as we waited for the scheduled reservation of the wading pool. We met an eleven year old boy who informed us, as Elissa passed out peanut-butter-waffle sandwiches to her children, that he was “really hungry,” even though his friend had given him two bags of Cheetos and once he had eaten six bananas.

Bella enjoyed the pool, but might have liked it more if she could have gotten in the water. Wal-mart doesn’t sell swimming diapers for 8-9 pound babies, and they pull their baby swimming suits off the racks in June. She had fun with mommy in the shade, chatting with the other moms, and watching a two year old boy eat melted nerds off of his chest and the cement.

On Saturday morning we all cleaned the church together. Ryan cleaned the mirrors. Celia cleaned the sinks and Bella provided entertainment for all girls under the age of ten. Celia received an update every three minutes about whether Bella was smiling or not.

Bella celebrated her 3 month birthday yesterday. She had just gotten the hang of sleeping in her crib. She went for 11 hours on Saturday night! Yesterday she started rolling from back to tummy. Now she wakes up on her tummy in the middle of the night and can’t flip back over. If she hadn’t put on three pounds in the past two and a half months she would most likely still be able to.

Celia went out with the sister missionaries last Sunday. In normal missionary fashion, we couldn’t find anyone to teach. The closest we came to giving a lesson was with a large group of inebriated Latinos. In their state they probably didn’t notice her dysfunctional use of the subjunctive, much less understood the most important message that God has given us within the last two centuries (and more if you count the apostasy).

Well we’ll tell you more about our fascinating lives next week. We love you all!


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