I'm Sorry, I Believe You Have The Wrong Guy

Over the last week, several things had been building that were bringing out my sarcastic side. I was to the point that I was about ready to unleash with a post just snidely and sarcastically commenting on a number of different things that were really getting under my skin. It would have been grand. But events this last weekend made me change my thinking.

Friday night, we finally got away from the Gila Valley and headed for the Phoenix Valley in order to go to the temple. During the day, Abby came home from school and begged not to go. We finally relented and she got to stay home with Grandma Claridge and do her things on Saturday. I only mention this because this is the first trip anywhere where we were down a family member simply because they had other things they needed/wanted to be to. After Shannon was done renting her clothes over this, I told her I wasn't buying her anymore clothes first off, but then we just huddled together in sadness at the growing up of our family.

Anyway, Jerry went with us and we had an enjoyable trip. Once we got there, I ran over to the Apple store and got Abby her birthday present (shhh! her birthday is tomorrow) which is an ipod shuffle. The main reason for this gift is that we are sick of Miley Cyrus and Camp Rock songs on our own ipod as well as the fact that we can never find it anymore because Abby has it in her room.

The next day we went to the temple and made it in time for the Spanish session. I enjoyed that, then we went to the Rapier Family Reunion. It was a little difficult because a lot of the questions we got centered around my mom. Totally understandable, but difficult none-the-less. However, we discovered that Braden is totally taken with Basketball. Got to get that boy a hoop.

After the reunion, Shannon and I finished up shopping errands that we needed to get done. Having not had a lot of sleep the previous three nights and then basically not sleeping the night before, I was about to the point of complete breakdown. I kept trying to pick fights with Shannon and threw at least three temper tantrums in the mall. It was not my most stellar day. I just seemed out of whack and nothing seemed to fix it. Wasn't sure why. Boy if I had only known what was coming.

We finally got in the car and headed home. We got back about 10:15 and got everyone to bed and then got ourselves to bed. We didn't even check our messages....

At 7:00 a.m. sharp our phone rang. I was completely asleep still. It was President Larson of the Stake Presidency. He asked if we could be at the stake offices in an hour. After I said we would be there and hung up, I made sure I hadn't been dreaming and then I turned to Shannon. She was looking at me with that deer in the headlight look of, "What did I just hear you say?" I looked back with that Oh Crap look and without words said, "You heard right!" She said, "What does this mean?"

"I don't know."

"Well, what did he say?"

"Can you and your wife be at the stake offices in an hour."

"So he said you before me."

"Yeah, but that could be because I answered the phone. This could be about you."

"No, no. I am sure this is for you. What would it be."

At that point, the silence was deafening. We looked at each other with a shocked look for about 15 seconds, then we got moving because we were down to about 52 minutes at that point.

By the time we got there, we had narrowed it down to a reorganization of the Stake Young Men's presidency or a vacancy in the Elder's Quorum Presidency. I still had a sliver of hope that it was for Shannon, but I kept that to myself as she was adamant it wasn't for her. We were met by President Larson and he asked to meet with me individually for just a moment first. Dang it, so much for the sliver of hope. I assured him I could accept a calling and then Shannon came in and he explained that they were reorganizing the bishopric in our ward that day and the new bishop had asked if I would serve as his second counselor...........I wasn't expecting that. I am pretty sure I just babbled for about thirty seconds and then was interrupted by President Larson when he said, "So can I assume that is a yes?"

We went home and told the kids and a little while later, Abby asked if she had to give her tithing to me now. I said that yeah, I guess so. She responded, "That is just weird." I couldn't help but agree.

We called our families and they all came, even my mom. Shannon and I must not be included in the ward informational system, because a ton of people seemed to know we were getting a new bishopric. We had no idea. So we kind of were giving something away with all of my family there. But the jig was pretty much up when President Kartchner asked me to stand and presented my name for advancement to High Priest. Then it was just a question of which one was I.

After a short talk about all callings having a release and thanking the previous bishopric, he then called Max Nicholas as our new bishop, with Rhett Dodge as 1st counselor and myself as 2nd counselor. After having just served for four years in the Teacher's Quorum with Rhett, people are going to think we come in a package deal or something. Little did I know that Tommy Nicholas was in the back of the chapel with his finger poised on the send button of his phone waiting to text to Heath the information. Which he then did. Imagine Shannon's surprise when a package was waiting on our porch before she got home from the block with a congratulations on the new calling. They say news travels fast in a small town, but I think it might be getting out of hand.

After sacrament meeting, they ordained me and set us apart and then all of a sudden I was getting called into a meeting in the Bishop's office, getting keys handed to me and being shown how to count the tithing. I couldn't help thinking, "Don't we get a week worth of preparation time." It was just ten hours previous I had even found out about this.

So now, I find I feel totally guilty for being such a pain with my wife the day before, I have to keep my sarcasm in check and most of all, I need to find a suit since I don't even own one. Please pray for our family, we are going to need it.

Living On The Edge Of Reason

Our pictures from Easter. Easter started on Saturday with an egg hunt in Duncan and then moved to Thatcher the next morning. Because of the addition of a dog since last Easter, the Easter Bunny moved his operations into the front yard this year.



I recently have had a couple of downer posts. Because of that, I have worried that I sound like I am a downer myself or am looking for sympathy and because of that, I have wanted to have a fun, interesting post next. Unfortunately, that just isn't working out.

On Saturday, April 10th, my grandmother June Martineau, passed away. This is my mother's mother. This in and of itself is not really a bad thing. She had had Alzheimer's for the last few years and was not doing well. However, we had pretty much assumed that my mom would not be traveling again. This event blew that idea out of the water as my mom was very determined to go to the funeral in Heber, AZ. Fortunately, Jerry has been in Duncan since the 5th of April and was able to help them prepare. I wish someone would have been here to help us prepare. Trying to get my mother out of the car to come into our house proved to be too difficult and painful. She ended up not coming in. It was pretty traumatic for me to see her hurting that much, but it was really hard on my kids. Braden just started walking down the block without asking and when I called him back, he came back with tears in his eyes. I asked him if he was sad because he thought I was mad at him. He said no, just that he was sad it hurt grandma so much just to touch her. That broke my heart and we just hugged and cried together.

Our view from the front door of our motel in Heber.

But, we did make it to Heber and it turned out to be a positive thing. I think it gave my mom's family a chance to say goodbye to her and vice versa. It was a very nice service, but by the end, my mom was done and so we got her back to the hotel before heading over to the gravesite. Because the kids are in school, we wished my parents and brother a hesitant but fond farewell and started home after the luncheon at the church. They stayed an additional night to let my mom recover somewhat.



A couple notes about Heber: It was snowing on us when we arrived. It is the middle of April and it was snowing. I am just saying.

Heber is not a big place, but very pretty. However, when I went on-line to see our hotel options, it was pretty much the Best Western or...it was pretty much the Best Western.

Spiffy looking boys. They looked better than their father even. At least for the first few minutes after getting ready.

I always find myself wondering what brings certain people to certain places in their lives. I live in Thatcher, but I grew up 45 miles away in Duncan and I married a Thatcher girl. It is somewhat understandable. The hotel owner was East Indian and had lived in New York. I didn't ask, but the thought kept coming back to me every time we entered the lobby and smelled curry. How did you and your family end up in Heber, and where do you find curry?

Last Saturday, Rhett Dodge came over and we trenched our front yard for a sprinkler system. This, of course, involved more manual labor with a shovel on my part. I am woefully out of shape and there is nothing like a day in my front yard to remind me of it.

This is our current view of the front yard. Someday...Someday!

Lastly, this weekend was Stake Conference. Timilee Brown's parents, Jay and Diane Layton, spoke as he has recently been called as Mission President for the Rapid City South Dakota Mission. They gave excellent talks and they will do an awesome job. Conference was outstanding and we are glad we had made plans to attend the temple this coming weekend because the whole conference was about the temple and being there and not finding reasons not to be there. You get the point.

We have a Rapier family reunion this weekend as well and we look forward to a slightly more upbeat post after that event.

Pulling Off The Party Of The Century

This last week has been absolutely crazy. About three months ago, Shannon decided that with her grandmother, Maxine Layton, turning 83 this year, it was time to throw a big party. We all look forward to those major milestones of 16, 21, 30, 40, 50 and 83. Right? I just kid. Shannon's rationale was that when you start putting an 8 at the beginning of your age each year, you better celebrate now regardless of how healthy one may be, because there is no guarantee for the future. So, she sent out the word and got all of her grandmother's descendents to commit and the date was set for April 3, 2009 in Thatcher, AZ. The truly amazing thing about this party was she managed to get 34 people here from all over the country (southwest part anyway) and still keep it a secret from Maxine. But before we get to the party, let us digress:

This is the face of surprise when Maxine arrived for her party.

The week leading up to this has been exactly what one would hope for if you are planning a major social event. Sunday started with Kate puking twice and blowing out not one, not two, but 5 diapers with nasty diarrhea. I stayed home with her and we prayed she would get over it. She did, eventually. By Wednesday, she was feeling better. However, in that time, both Shannon and I had come down with nasty throat and ear infections. Good times. Add to that a nice middle of the night puking from Logan and we were in great shape to host 30 people.

But it all worked out by Friday, and the party looked great. Maxine showed up and was completely surprised and very shocked. She cried, we cried (I didn't cry. I never cry. I don't care what Danica thinks she saw during Elder Holland's talk today.) and we had a fantastic evening. Everyone remarked yet again how amazing Maxine is at 83. I think she has more energy and get up and go than I do. Of course even she is no match energy wise for her new 93 year old boyfriend, who unfortunately was on a cruise with his family and couldn't make the party. To wrap things up, we watched a video of pictures and Maxine telling her life story in her own words. It was a fantastic evening.


That would be Abby under all that toilet paper during the toilet paper mummy game. I'm not sure the title gets the essence of the game.

The next day while the family basically hung out and went to lunch at La Casita, Lamar and I braved the winds and played in the hospital's fund raising golf tournament. There is nothing like playing golf in 30-40 mph wind gusts...all day long...it never let up...in fact...it got worse the longer we went. Highlights from the day included:

Reuniting with an old flame. My 3 wood and I had not been on speaking terms for a couple of years. But we got together again and we wondered how we ever let things get so wrong.

Free Soda. It wasn't Dr. Pepper, but it was soda. Lamar was in seventh heaven because the Pepsi was free and they kept it flowing.

Arnold's joke in the restroom. I won't repeat it, but I know Lamar will get a good chuckle remembering it as he chuckled about it all weekend.

Free Brawts for Lamar and I. Shannon would consider this a low light, but oh well. (This actually led to a conversation later at the house on foods that Shannon thinks are disgusting.)

Lamar draining a 20 foot putt on the last hole to win between the two groups who were playing together. Ok, officially we tied, but they bought a mulligan and used it to take off one stroke. We went mulligan free and still pulled out the tie. So we win. This goes back to basic tie rules as established during the UofA streak in football over ASU when they won 9 consecutive years. They actually tied in one of those games, but in that game, ASU just needed to punt and they would win. But instead, the punter muffed the snap and UofA scored and tied the game. Sorry, that is a UofA win, just like our golf round.

Lamar between shots and blinding wind gusts. When are they going to move here so we could play golf and have fun any time we want? I realize it is a rhetorical question, but I ask it nonetheless.

That night, after the priesthood session, we hung out and enjoyed each other's company and then Shannon and I stayed up until 1:30 with Cody and Danica just visiting. My goodness how we miss them.

The family all left today and we are back to normal life tomorrow. But WOW, what a weekend and congrats to my wife for pulling off an amazing surprise party.