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Sunday, 13 September 2009
Sunday, 6 September 2009
Sunday, 29 March 2009
Baton Rouge Week 40
Hi there. We are having a youth fireside tonight. I am trying to write this letter while Dana is gone visiting teaching and before eating lunch.
I had a giant project. I had to finish a book chapter and it was hard to get started. I ended up writing a pretty chapter. Dana has finished a paper from her dissertation that she is having proof reading this week.
We found out on Thursday that LSU is undergoing some reorganizing. For example, the math department has been in the college of Arts and Sciences, where English is, but it is moving to the College of science. Then Arts and Science will be getting the department of economics and some other things and then it becomes the college of Humanities and Social Sciences. The college of Education has been a small college with two pretty large departments and will now had several schools and other departments and be the College of Education and Human Professions. Anyway, many things are up in the air. We don’t even know if our dean will stay the same. It is a little confusing. We don’t know what that will mean for Dana’s job. Many things are up in the air.
We had a nice talk with Amelia last Sunday. It was nice to hear from her. We have been trying to make the little camera work. Well, the camera kind of works, but our sound quality is bad. Sometimes, the connection also goes out. It is fun to see Miriam and Evie. Okay, it is good to see Amelia and Raymond as well.
We love hearing from everyone else as well. Abbey is good at keeping in touch too. I also found that if I write Walker a separate letter, he writes me back. Have any of you found that to be true as well? We also heard from Sophia this week. It is going to be fun to have them here. We are looking forward to the whole event.
We had some major landscaping done this week. The plants grow like crazy. We had them trim some trees, clear out some over grown flower beds, cut back tropical plants, and clean up a lot of dead fall. We celebrated by planting some flower yesterday. We went to the temple in the morning and then browsed some plant stores. We had to find stuff that will stand the heat, grow in the shade, and still stay in bloom all summer. We planted some caladiums and some impatiens. The caladiums are a bulb that grow like crazy during the spring and summer and then die back. We never saw them in Utah. They would actually grow inside there. I don’t think I have ever grown impatiens either. We have another flower bed to plant next week. We hope these do well so that we can plant some more. We also cleaned out two planters along our patio in the back. Stay tuned you might get some pictures.
Speaking of pictures, I only got one comment, from Amelia, who wanted a picture of our owl. Well, it is an owl and they are unpredictable. I will try to get a picture of “our” owl. The picture on our blog does look exactly like ours, but ours is cooler because it is ours! More comments on the great pictures please.
We now have blinds, some curtains, flowers and we also hung a picture. It looks like we are moving in. Who knows by the time Curtis and Sophia get here we might have even a couple of more pictures throughout the house.
Conference is next week. I have been looking forward to it. I hope all of you are also getting ready for a great week end. Those of you in Utah might even start to hope for descent weather.
Take care of each other.
Love Dad and Dana.
I had a giant project. I had to finish a book chapter and it was hard to get started. I ended up writing a pretty chapter. Dana has finished a paper from her dissertation that she is having proof reading this week.
We found out on Thursday that LSU is undergoing some reorganizing. For example, the math department has been in the college of Arts and Sciences, where English is, but it is moving to the College of science. Then Arts and Science will be getting the department of economics and some other things and then it becomes the college of Humanities and Social Sciences. The college of Education has been a small college with two pretty large departments and will now had several schools and other departments and be the College of Education and Human Professions. Anyway, many things are up in the air. We don’t even know if our dean will stay the same. It is a little confusing. We don’t know what that will mean for Dana’s job. Many things are up in the air.
We had a nice talk with Amelia last Sunday. It was nice to hear from her. We have been trying to make the little camera work. Well, the camera kind of works, but our sound quality is bad. Sometimes, the connection also goes out. It is fun to see Miriam and Evie. Okay, it is good to see Amelia and Raymond as well.
We love hearing from everyone else as well. Abbey is good at keeping in touch too. I also found that if I write Walker a separate letter, he writes me back. Have any of you found that to be true as well? We also heard from Sophia this week. It is going to be fun to have them here. We are looking forward to the whole event.
We had some major landscaping done this week. The plants grow like crazy. We had them trim some trees, clear out some over grown flower beds, cut back tropical plants, and clean up a lot of dead fall. We celebrated by planting some flower yesterday. We went to the temple in the morning and then browsed some plant stores. We had to find stuff that will stand the heat, grow in the shade, and still stay in bloom all summer. We planted some caladiums and some impatiens. The caladiums are a bulb that grow like crazy during the spring and summer and then die back. We never saw them in Utah. They would actually grow inside there. I don’t think I have ever grown impatiens either. We have another flower bed to plant next week. We hope these do well so that we can plant some more. We also cleaned out two planters along our patio in the back. Stay tuned you might get some pictures.
Speaking of pictures, I only got one comment, from Amelia, who wanted a picture of our owl. Well, it is an owl and they are unpredictable. I will try to get a picture of “our” owl. The picture on our blog does look exactly like ours, but ours is cooler because it is ours! More comments on the great pictures please.
We now have blinds, some curtains, flowers and we also hung a picture. It looks like we are moving in. Who knows by the time Curtis and Sophia get here we might have even a couple of more pictures throughout the house.
Conference is next week. I have been looking forward to it. I hope all of you are also getting ready for a great week end. Those of you in Utah might even start to hope for descent weather.
Take care of each other.
Love Dad and Dana.
Sunday, 22 March 2009
Baton Rouge Week 39
March 22, 2009
Hi there!
Well the most important event of the week was Dana’s talk. This is the month of the Relief Society birthday and they had the Relief Society presidency speak. They spoke about charity and they did a great job. Dana made the point that being charitable is a state being. So, it is trait that you develop line upon line.
Last Sunday, I had a toothache start. I have never had one of those toothaches that is incapacitating. I know people that had them and I now believe everything they say. I didn’t sleep much Tuesday and Wednesday nights. I went to the dentist Thursday and the sad part is that the pain was going away. So, I had the whole check up and everything else was okay. He tapped around the teeth in that area. I could tell the difference, but the real pain had subsided. He told me to wait and if the pain came back I needed to go to a specialist. He said that these kinds of dentists were experts at finding and exaggerating pain in order to narrow down the location. It sounds horrible. My tooth is still sensitive and so I need to decide if I need the specialist. The dentist said the pain could come from a sinus infection or grinding my teeth while sleeping.
We finally went golfing. We went during July when Mitch was here. The weather is so good, it is sad that we haven’t been golfing more. The only thing that was sadder was how I played. We think that we are going to take a few days to golf during our spring break.
For the young men and young women’s activity we went and did baptisms for the dead. They do that quite often around here, at least once a quarter. The hard part is that we need seven adult males to do the baptisms and the confirmations all at the same time. This time we had three boys and three girls. We had four adult males so we did the baptisms and then we went to do the confirmations. If you do it that way, the youth have to wait for everyone to finish with the baptisms.
Our blinds final arrived. We are just about moved into the modern world. We will no longer need to depend on the early morning sun and the songs of birds to wake us up. There are so many birds here that it is hard to believe. We have a new bird friend that has been hanging around the front yard. It is a large barred owl. I will post a picture on the blog. It is a big owl that we have seen sitting in one of the front yard trees and then swooping down to eat a snake or a lizard. If it ate squirrels it would never go hungry around here.
I am also getting excited for conference. We have appreciated the church here. We have found some friends and we have been able to feel supported and cared for. I think we have a real opportunity to prepare to listen to the announcement of the new apostle. Today in church we talked about the organization of the church in 1830 with six members. In reality, we have the same chance to listen for the confirmation of the spirit as back then. We can know for ourselves that this announcement is approved of the Lord.
We love you. Take care of each other.
Love Dad and Dana
Hi there!
Well the most important event of the week was Dana’s talk. This is the month of the Relief Society birthday and they had the Relief Society presidency speak. They spoke about charity and they did a great job. Dana made the point that being charitable is a state being. So, it is trait that you develop line upon line.
Last Sunday, I had a toothache start. I have never had one of those toothaches that is incapacitating. I know people that had them and I now believe everything they say. I didn’t sleep much Tuesday and Wednesday nights. I went to the dentist Thursday and the sad part is that the pain was going away. So, I had the whole check up and everything else was okay. He tapped around the teeth in that area. I could tell the difference, but the real pain had subsided. He told me to wait and if the pain came back I needed to go to a specialist. He said that these kinds of dentists were experts at finding and exaggerating pain in order to narrow down the location. It sounds horrible. My tooth is still sensitive and so I need to decide if I need the specialist. The dentist said the pain could come from a sinus infection or grinding my teeth while sleeping.
We finally went golfing. We went during July when Mitch was here. The weather is so good, it is sad that we haven’t been golfing more. The only thing that was sadder was how I played. We think that we are going to take a few days to golf during our spring break.
For the young men and young women’s activity we went and did baptisms for the dead. They do that quite often around here, at least once a quarter. The hard part is that we need seven adult males to do the baptisms and the confirmations all at the same time. This time we had three boys and three girls. We had four adult males so we did the baptisms and then we went to do the confirmations. If you do it that way, the youth have to wait for everyone to finish with the baptisms.
Our blinds final arrived. We are just about moved into the modern world. We will no longer need to depend on the early morning sun and the songs of birds to wake us up. There are so many birds here that it is hard to believe. We have a new bird friend that has been hanging around the front yard. It is a large barred owl. I will post a picture on the blog. It is a big owl that we have seen sitting in one of the front yard trees and then swooping down to eat a snake or a lizard. If it ate squirrels it would never go hungry around here.
I am also getting excited for conference. We have appreciated the church here. We have found some friends and we have been able to feel supported and cared for. I think we have a real opportunity to prepare to listen to the announcement of the new apostle. Today in church we talked about the organization of the church in 1830 with six members. In reality, we have the same chance to listen for the confirmation of the spirit as back then. We can know for ourselves that this announcement is approved of the Lord.
We love you. Take care of each other.
Love Dad and Dana
Sunday, 15 March 2009
Baton Rouge Week 38
Hi there.
I know that you don’t want to hear it, but it was another busy and productive week. I finished completely a paper for the English Journal. I also finished a paper with two other colleagues that we sent out Friday. Our spring break starts on April 6th and that means we have three weeks to finish two large projects. I have a paper for a book chapter due by March 25th and one more large paper due that my graduate student and I are trying to finish by the break. One of Dana’s professors from Georgia was here for an evaluation. While she was here she asked her to help write a book. It will be about programs how principals manage all the programs in schools like athletics and special ed. In the meanwhile, we also have church responsibilities with the young men and relief society, trying to hang the new drapers, organize some yard work, and get ready for Deacon’s big visit. We had a small scout court of honor, one scout earned one advancement. The young women dressed up and attended. We have a temple trip this week and a fireside in two weeks. Dana was in charge of the big relief society party this week. Really, she had the first counselor do most of the work and Mary sent pins for the party, but she did conduct. I also helped out in nursery for the big relief society dinner. They had about 45 women attend. I went with one of the young men; I will do almost anything for free food.
Yesterday, we took a drive to some places we haven’t been before. There is a pretty big historical black college, Southern University http://web.subr.edu/index.php?id=69 . The university has been there a long time. It looked to us that it is mainly a residential campus. It has a great view of a gigantic bend of the Mississippi River. They have a very active athletic program and a large ROTC program. I am interested in finding out their education department.
We are trying to put together all of our taxes. We realize that moving, remodeling, and starting a new job makes it a little more difficult to track of the stuff we need to prep for our taxes. Wow! We have just about figured all out.
Walker sounds like he is doing really well. He does not, however, count my family letter and update a communication to him. I think all of you should write more, that way maybe my large weekly letter will count. I am trying to send a small message to him independently each week. Sometimes I miss, but according to the rumors, I do better than most of you.
We have had great weather recently. We have had a little bit of rain during the last week and then Saturday we had a lot. The temperature dropped as the rain fell. For example, Thursday was in the low 80s, Friday was in the low 70s, and on Saturday fell to low 60s. Now, today it is in the 70s again. They say around here that if you don’t like the weather wait a day or two and it will be something else.
You love you take care of each other.
Love Dad and Dana.
I know that you don’t want to hear it, but it was another busy and productive week. I finished completely a paper for the English Journal. I also finished a paper with two other colleagues that we sent out Friday. Our spring break starts on April 6th and that means we have three weeks to finish two large projects. I have a paper for a book chapter due by March 25th and one more large paper due that my graduate student and I are trying to finish by the break. One of Dana’s professors from Georgia was here for an evaluation. While she was here she asked her to help write a book. It will be about programs how principals manage all the programs in schools like athletics and special ed. In the meanwhile, we also have church responsibilities with the young men and relief society, trying to hang the new drapers, organize some yard work, and get ready for Deacon’s big visit. We had a small scout court of honor, one scout earned one advancement. The young women dressed up and attended. We have a temple trip this week and a fireside in two weeks. Dana was in charge of the big relief society party this week. Really, she had the first counselor do most of the work and Mary sent pins for the party, but she did conduct. I also helped out in nursery for the big relief society dinner. They had about 45 women attend. I went with one of the young men; I will do almost anything for free food.
Yesterday, we took a drive to some places we haven’t been before. There is a pretty big historical black college, Southern University http://web.subr.edu/index.php?id=69 . The university has been there a long time. It looked to us that it is mainly a residential campus. It has a great view of a gigantic bend of the Mississippi River. They have a very active athletic program and a large ROTC program. I am interested in finding out their education department.
We are trying to put together all of our taxes. We realize that moving, remodeling, and starting a new job makes it a little more difficult to track of the stuff we need to prep for our taxes. Wow! We have just about figured all out.
Walker sounds like he is doing really well. He does not, however, count my family letter and update a communication to him. I think all of you should write more, that way maybe my large weekly letter will count. I am trying to send a small message to him independently each week. Sometimes I miss, but according to the rumors, I do better than most of you.
We have had great weather recently. We have had a little bit of rain during the last week and then Saturday we had a lot. The temperature dropped as the rain fell. For example, Thursday was in the low 80s, Friday was in the low 70s, and on Saturday fell to low 60s. Now, today it is in the 70s again. They say around here that if you don’t like the weather wait a day or two and it will be something else.
You love you take care of each other.
Love Dad and Dana.
Sunday, 8 March 2009
Baton Rouge Week 37
Hi there! Look at this—a letter on time again.
We just had a chat with Amelia. We tried to do video chat, but it seems to click on and off quite a bit. We don’t know if it is bad internet connection on our part or on their part. We moved around a few controls and managed to get the voice on their end to come through a little better.
I had a small paper accepted in the English Journal. This is a big deal in my field of English Education and very good exposure. They have a column on mentoring in each issue. I rewrote the opening story in my dissertation for the column. They asked me to rewrite the ending and send it back. I did and they accepted it and it should appear in a couple of months.
I am also now featured online as one of the new editors of The ALAN Review. After March 15 any new article submitted to the journal comes to us. If you want to check out the pictures and the bios go to: http://www.alan-ya.org/2009/03/meet-the-new-editors-of-the-alan-review/. We are excited to get started, but we realize that it will be a lot of work.
Dana and I have finished the major rewrites on a paper. We had to do quite a bit of work on it. We might have a few edits to finish in the bibliography in the next day or two. We should have it out to the editor by the middle of the week. Hurrah!
For me, lots of projects have been coming due at the same time. This is a good thing; nevertheless, it makes the days and the weeks very busy. For example, I have to meet with my students tomorrow in order to have their grades current by midterm. I also need to have part of group paper due by Wednesday. If I work very hard from now through the first week of April, I should be caught up with all of the pressing projects. You should remember that the nature of this work is that there is always something to be working on. I think that if you just plod along things get done. It would be nice if I could figure out how to end projects in some kind of monthly rotation.
I spent Saturday morning at a Stake Volleyball tournament. We only had four young men so we teamed with another ward that only had four as well. They managed to win the whole affair. I was there from about 8:00 until 12:00. After that I went to the local library to pick up some books I need for a project. Dana spent the morning delivering food and dealing with some of the challenges of the sisters in the ward. I then did some yard work and worked on cleaning some of the house while Dana went to teach her occasional Saturday class in the afternoon. She didn’t get back until about 6:30. We watched a little bit of television, before going to bed. We forgot to set the clock ahead but I still got up in time to get to my meetings before sacrament.
We did not see any movies this week. We almost went to a baseball game but decided against it this week. Now, that the boys’ basketball team has taken the SEC regular session championship, there is a lot of pressure on the boys’ baseball. They have been very good over the last 12 years and are projected to do well again this year. They better do well; the university just built a brand new stadium for boys’ baseball and another one for girls’ softball. The spring weather and the spring sports here are fantastic. We are hoping to try to get to at least one of everything. Put on the shorts and the sunglasses and enjoy the action and the weather.
I know I talk about the weather, but it is unbelievable. We have flowers everywhere. We saw a frog and a gecko on the patio door window last night. We still have squirrels everywhere. I am thinking about getting a bird feeder to encourage a few more birds. We also have a swing arbor with a flowering vine over it without a swing. I am thinking about getting a swing before Deacon gets here. I am hoping that I can spend some time reading outside in the shade.
We had a great sacrament meeting at church today. I was able to feel the spirit several times. Dana is doing a great job as the relief society president. It is always a surprise to see some of the challenges that people are dealing with in their lives. We really don’t know how blessed we all are. We visited a couple’s home to assess their needs, which were many. Wow! It is important to learn to feel the spirit and then respond to the promptings. The gospel provides the answers to consistent happiness and productivity. It isn’t always easy, but it can be worth it.
We love you and encourage you to take care of each other. Nurture each other in the gospel. Read the scriptures, pray, and start a year supply. I feel that prompting every time I open the cupboard.
Love Dad and Dana.
We just had a chat with Amelia. We tried to do video chat, but it seems to click on and off quite a bit. We don’t know if it is bad internet connection on our part or on their part. We moved around a few controls and managed to get the voice on their end to come through a little better.
I had a small paper accepted in the English Journal. This is a big deal in my field of English Education and very good exposure. They have a column on mentoring in each issue. I rewrote the opening story in my dissertation for the column. They asked me to rewrite the ending and send it back. I did and they accepted it and it should appear in a couple of months.
I am also now featured online as one of the new editors of The ALAN Review. After March 15 any new article submitted to the journal comes to us. If you want to check out the pictures and the bios go to: http://www.alan-ya.org/2009/03/meet-the-new-editors-of-the-alan-review/. We are excited to get started, but we realize that it will be a lot of work.
Dana and I have finished the major rewrites on a paper. We had to do quite a bit of work on it. We might have a few edits to finish in the bibliography in the next day or two. We should have it out to the editor by the middle of the week. Hurrah!
For me, lots of projects have been coming due at the same time. This is a good thing; nevertheless, it makes the days and the weeks very busy. For example, I have to meet with my students tomorrow in order to have their grades current by midterm. I also need to have part of group paper due by Wednesday. If I work very hard from now through the first week of April, I should be caught up with all of the pressing projects. You should remember that the nature of this work is that there is always something to be working on. I think that if you just plod along things get done. It would be nice if I could figure out how to end projects in some kind of monthly rotation.
I spent Saturday morning at a Stake Volleyball tournament. We only had four young men so we teamed with another ward that only had four as well. They managed to win the whole affair. I was there from about 8:00 until 12:00. After that I went to the local library to pick up some books I need for a project. Dana spent the morning delivering food and dealing with some of the challenges of the sisters in the ward. I then did some yard work and worked on cleaning some of the house while Dana went to teach her occasional Saturday class in the afternoon. She didn’t get back until about 6:30. We watched a little bit of television, before going to bed. We forgot to set the clock ahead but I still got up in time to get to my meetings before sacrament.
We did not see any movies this week. We almost went to a baseball game but decided against it this week. Now, that the boys’ basketball team has taken the SEC regular session championship, there is a lot of pressure on the boys’ baseball. They have been very good over the last 12 years and are projected to do well again this year. They better do well; the university just built a brand new stadium for boys’ baseball and another one for girls’ softball. The spring weather and the spring sports here are fantastic. We are hoping to try to get to at least one of everything. Put on the shorts and the sunglasses and enjoy the action and the weather.
I know I talk about the weather, but it is unbelievable. We have flowers everywhere. We saw a frog and a gecko on the patio door window last night. We still have squirrels everywhere. I am thinking about getting a bird feeder to encourage a few more birds. We also have a swing arbor with a flowering vine over it without a swing. I am thinking about getting a swing before Deacon gets here. I am hoping that I can spend some time reading outside in the shade.
We had a great sacrament meeting at church today. I was able to feel the spirit several times. Dana is doing a great job as the relief society president. It is always a surprise to see some of the challenges that people are dealing with in their lives. We really don’t know how blessed we all are. We visited a couple’s home to assess their needs, which were many. Wow! It is important to learn to feel the spirit and then respond to the promptings. The gospel provides the answers to consistent happiness and productivity. It isn’t always easy, but it can be worth it.
We love you and encourage you to take care of each other. Nurture each other in the gospel. Read the scriptures, pray, and start a year supply. I feel that prompting every time I open the cupboard.
Love Dad and Dana.
Sunday, 1 March 2009
Baton Rouge Week 36
Baton Rouge Week 36 March 1
Hi there.
I have learned that it is hard to write letters on the go. I finally mailed the short one I wrote in the airport. Vacations are great, but you almost need as much time off to recover. We went to a movie on Wednesday and rested up. I actually took my bike off of the wall hook in the shed twice this week. Dana is running again and I hate running so I broke out the bike. She is up to 30 minutes again. I rode seven miles twice, which is about thirty minutes (gotta keep up with my lovely wife). I am staying just in the neighborhood. The main roads here are horrible. I am building up my strength and energy for a ride along the levee trail. That alone will tell you how great the weather is in Baton Rouge.
We had a paper returned with a revise and resubmit that we worked hard on this week. Revise and resubmit means the editors liked conditionally and are giving us another chance to make it worth publishing. We sent a copy to my mentor for a read through and he has already sent it back with some comments. We hope to get it back out by the end of the week. This is one of the hard parts about the work. You can rewrite and rewrite and someone can always find something else for you to do with it.
It sounds like the Reflections of Christ event was successful. The missionaries are busy doing follow up visits. We went with one of our neighbors and they have been by to visit with her. She was an art instructor at a small college in the area for a long time. She was really impressed with the quality of the art photography.
Abbey is doing great in the Boston area. We had a great time with her and enjoyed getting to know the family she works for. I also saw some things in Boston that I have never seen before. One of those was the Bunker Hill Monument. Did you know the colonists actually lost the battle? If I had known that I had forgotten it. What the battle did prove to the British was that the colonials would stand up and fight. Several of the leaders made heroic statements and rallied the original armies. It really is an amazing feat that the colonials were able to stand up to the British. When you look at how the British reacted, it is almost like they could not believe this little rag tag group could cause so much trouble for Mother England. I wonder if the US needs to consider how we treat people who seem to want “freedom” (or whatever it is they want to call it) on their own terms.
Lant also took us on a brief tour of Harvard. Some of the places are hard to get into and he was able to take us behind the scenes so to speak. It really is an interesting place. Apparently, Harvard has lost quite a bit of money. They are still rich, but they have slowed down some of their building and growth. He also gave me some insight into the work of an academic.
We also walked most of the Freedom Trail and ate lunch in Quincy Market. I really like Boston, but I will do my best to visit during better weather.
I heard some job talks (where job candidates talk about their research) over the last couple weeks. Most of them were very good. It makes you reflect on the job talks I did last year. These are the kind of experiences that make you reflect on the quality of work you do.
Well, that’s about it for now. We have several busy projects throughout the week and we will keep you posted.
Take care of each other.
Love Dad and Dana.
Hi there.
I have learned that it is hard to write letters on the go. I finally mailed the short one I wrote in the airport. Vacations are great, but you almost need as much time off to recover. We went to a movie on Wednesday and rested up. I actually took my bike off of the wall hook in the shed twice this week. Dana is running again and I hate running so I broke out the bike. She is up to 30 minutes again. I rode seven miles twice, which is about thirty minutes (gotta keep up with my lovely wife). I am staying just in the neighborhood. The main roads here are horrible. I am building up my strength and energy for a ride along the levee trail. That alone will tell you how great the weather is in Baton Rouge.
We had a paper returned with a revise and resubmit that we worked hard on this week. Revise and resubmit means the editors liked conditionally and are giving us another chance to make it worth publishing. We sent a copy to my mentor for a read through and he has already sent it back with some comments. We hope to get it back out by the end of the week. This is one of the hard parts about the work. You can rewrite and rewrite and someone can always find something else for you to do with it.
It sounds like the Reflections of Christ event was successful. The missionaries are busy doing follow up visits. We went with one of our neighbors and they have been by to visit with her. She was an art instructor at a small college in the area for a long time. She was really impressed with the quality of the art photography.
Abbey is doing great in the Boston area. We had a great time with her and enjoyed getting to know the family she works for. I also saw some things in Boston that I have never seen before. One of those was the Bunker Hill Monument. Did you know the colonists actually lost the battle? If I had known that I had forgotten it. What the battle did prove to the British was that the colonials would stand up and fight. Several of the leaders made heroic statements and rallied the original armies. It really is an amazing feat that the colonials were able to stand up to the British. When you look at how the British reacted, it is almost like they could not believe this little rag tag group could cause so much trouble for Mother England. I wonder if the US needs to consider how we treat people who seem to want “freedom” (or whatever it is they want to call it) on their own terms.
Lant also took us on a brief tour of Harvard. Some of the places are hard to get into and he was able to take us behind the scenes so to speak. It really is an interesting place. Apparently, Harvard has lost quite a bit of money. They are still rich, but they have slowed down some of their building and growth. He also gave me some insight into the work of an academic.
We also walked most of the Freedom Trail and ate lunch in Quincy Market. I really like Boston, but I will do my best to visit during better weather.
I heard some job talks (where job candidates talk about their research) over the last couple weeks. Most of them were very good. It makes you reflect on the job talks I did last year. These are the kind of experiences that make you reflect on the quality of work you do.
Well, that’s about it for now. We have several busy projects throughout the week and we will keep you posted.
Take care of each other.
Love Dad and Dana.
Baton Rouge week 35
Hi there!
This is the late letter. We left Baton Rouge for Reading, Mass last Thursday. It has been a whirlwind adventure. I think the reason so many people live there is that they don’t know how to get out. The roads are poorly marked, they wind around, they change names, any road you are on curves so much that you can’t tell if you are coming or going. Maybe you are doing both. Lant claimed that the saying in the area is “the way to go is the way you know.” People are afraid to leave. The only landmarks are the trees and they all look alike. No mountains, no sun, just the crazy haze of winter.
We got in late Thursday night to a welcome of snow and ice. The next morning went started towards Abbey from Manchester, New Hampshire. It is about 50 miles and we finally found her Monday morning and three tanks of gas later. Just kidding! You can wander around and things look familiar then you remember you saw them in the background of a movie.
We found Abbey with Drew and Connor. We had lunch at a McDonald’s and went to the house to see were Abbey spends her days. After that Drew and Connors grandma came over to sit with them from about two o’clock on. We then went on a tour of the basic Concord area. We saw the free library in Concord that has a large collection of books by authors from the area: Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Alcott and myriad of others. We also drove by the minuteman national park and several local houses that these various dignitaries lived in and owned over the years. We also went into the gift shop of a local museum. We learned that concord was really the hot bed of the revolution primarily because Boston was inhabited by British troops. After the Boston massacre and the Boston Tea Party many of the revolutionary leaders in the area had to flee. Clearly the British knew who many of them were. Unlike the leaders in other areas of the 13 colonies, the leaders in the Boston area who fled to Concord and the like seemed willing to push the issue.
We made our way over to Diane and Lant’s house. The journey was only a day or two because Abbey had been there before (the way to go is the way you know). They had just arrived from a ski vacation in Utah on Thursday. We talked with them some and then everyone headed off to bed after a game or two.
Take care of each other.
We love you.
Dad and Dana
PS. No one wrote to complain about not getting a weekly letter. Oh well, nice to be missed. I’ll write again Sunday.
Hi there!
This is the late letter. We left Baton Rouge for Reading, Mass last Thursday. It has been a whirlwind adventure. I think the reason so many people live there is that they don’t know how to get out. The roads are poorly marked, they wind around, they change names, any road you are on curves so much that you can’t tell if you are coming or going. Maybe you are doing both. Lant claimed that the saying in the area is “the way to go is the way you know.” People are afraid to leave. The only landmarks are the trees and they all look alike. No mountains, no sun, just the crazy haze of winter.
We got in late Thursday night to a welcome of snow and ice. The next morning went started towards Abbey from Manchester, New Hampshire. It is about 50 miles and we finally found her Monday morning and three tanks of gas later. Just kidding! You can wander around and things look familiar then you remember you saw them in the background of a movie.
We found Abbey with Drew and Connor. We had lunch at a McDonald’s and went to the house to see were Abbey spends her days. After that Drew and Connors grandma came over to sit with them from about two o’clock on. We then went on a tour of the basic Concord area. We saw the free library in Concord that has a large collection of books by authors from the area: Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Alcott and myriad of others. We also drove by the minuteman national park and several local houses that these various dignitaries lived in and owned over the years. We also went into the gift shop of a local museum. We learned that concord was really the hot bed of the revolution primarily because Boston was inhabited by British troops. After the Boston massacre and the Boston Tea Party many of the revolutionary leaders in the area had to flee. Clearly the British knew who many of them were. Unlike the leaders in other areas of the 13 colonies, the leaders in the Boston area who fled to Concord and the like seemed willing to push the issue.
We made our way over to Diane and Lant’s house. The journey was only a day or two because Abbey had been there before (the way to go is the way you know). They had just arrived from a ski vacation in Utah on Thursday. We talked with them some and then everyone headed off to bed after a game or two.
Take care of each other.
We love you.
Dad and Dana
PS. No one wrote to complain about not getting a weekly letter. Oh well, nice to be missed. I’ll write again Sunday.
Sunday, 15 February 2009
Baton Rouge Week 34
Hi there!
Well it is Mardi Gras time in Baton Rouge. There are tons of family friendly parades in the Baton Rouge area. Friday a couple organized a small party and we went to the local parade sponsored by the Atremis krewe of Baton Rouge. The Mardi Gras parades are held at night. They are composed of huge tractor trailers all decorated with lights with different organizations (all the same krewe) throwing beads, stuffed animals, and other trinkets. I will post some pictures on our blog. In attendance were the temple president and his wife and a member of the Stake Presidency and his wife. So, it is possible to have some family friendly introduction to the Mardi Gras traditions. It was fun. Saturday night we had dinner with a couple in the ward and then went to another parade. This time is was the Orion krewe. We haven’t quite figure out where the krewes come from. I guess we will have to be here a little longer to figure out all of the cultural ins and outs.
I hope to get some pictures on the blog.
Monday I found out that I had a paper accepted and it will be out soon. It is going to be published in Leaflet a publication of the New England Teacher Council of Teachers of English. The editor asked me if I had anything else to send. That’s good news but I need to get published in bigger journals as much as possible. I also had an abstract for a paper accepted. Now, I have to have the paper finished by March 5th. That is good news but a lot of work. It feels like lots of work that happened early in the school year is paying off.
I also gave a lunchtime roundtable talk for faculty and graduate students this Friday. Three of the full professors came and listened in. It was a good opportunity to share some of my work with them. I also think it is useful for graduate students to see a model of how to go about structuring their work.
Dana wasn’t able to attend because she attended a meeting for the dean. She has been traveling more because she is working with people who are training to be administrators. She has to visit the schools where prospective administrators are doing internships. She has seen a lot more of the areas around the greater Baton Rouge area than I do.
We are going to Boston this week to see Abbey. We look forward to having some time out. We are really looking forward to seeing Abbey and all of her work setting. It looks like we will be able to see Diane and Lant for awhile. There are some cool things to see in Boston. Abbey says that Lant might give us a tour of the Harvard library. That might be very interesting.
The weather is still very good. It seems like something is blooming all of the time. We have had more rain, but it hasn’t been very cold. The rain has also been cooperative; it seems to want to rain only when we are sleeping or when we are in a building. We will keep knocking on wood.
We love you all. Take care of each other.
Love Dad and Dana
Well it is Mardi Gras time in Baton Rouge. There are tons of family friendly parades in the Baton Rouge area. Friday a couple organized a small party and we went to the local parade sponsored by the Atremis krewe of Baton Rouge. The Mardi Gras parades are held at night. They are composed of huge tractor trailers all decorated with lights with different organizations (all the same krewe) throwing beads, stuffed animals, and other trinkets. I will post some pictures on our blog. In attendance were the temple president and his wife and a member of the Stake Presidency and his wife. So, it is possible to have some family friendly introduction to the Mardi Gras traditions. It was fun. Saturday night we had dinner with a couple in the ward and then went to another parade. This time is was the Orion krewe. We haven’t quite figure out where the krewes come from. I guess we will have to be here a little longer to figure out all of the cultural ins and outs.
I hope to get some pictures on the blog.
Monday I found out that I had a paper accepted and it will be out soon. It is going to be published in Leaflet a publication of the New England Teacher Council of Teachers of English. The editor asked me if I had anything else to send. That’s good news but I need to get published in bigger journals as much as possible. I also had an abstract for a paper accepted. Now, I have to have the paper finished by March 5th. That is good news but a lot of work. It feels like lots of work that happened early in the school year is paying off.
I also gave a lunchtime roundtable talk for faculty and graduate students this Friday. Three of the full professors came and listened in. It was a good opportunity to share some of my work with them. I also think it is useful for graduate students to see a model of how to go about structuring their work.
Dana wasn’t able to attend because she attended a meeting for the dean. She has been traveling more because she is working with people who are training to be administrators. She has to visit the schools where prospective administrators are doing internships. She has seen a lot more of the areas around the greater Baton Rouge area than I do.
We are going to Boston this week to see Abbey. We look forward to having some time out. We are really looking forward to seeing Abbey and all of her work setting. It looks like we will be able to see Diane and Lant for awhile. There are some cool things to see in Boston. Abbey says that Lant might give us a tour of the Harvard library. That might be very interesting.
The weather is still very good. It seems like something is blooming all of the time. We have had more rain, but it hasn’t been very cold. The rain has also been cooperative; it seems to want to rain only when we are sleeping or when we are in a building. We will keep knocking on wood.
We love you all. Take care of each other.
Love Dad and Dana
Baton Rouge Week 33
Hi there,
Each week seems to get faster and faster. That might be because things at work seem accelerated. Articles that we have been working on are nearing their first stage of completion. Dana and I have one back that we need to revise. I have a small one back from the English journal that needs only minor revisions. The paper that my graduate student and I have been working on is in the first writing stage. I think we will be able to get it out for review by the first of March. I am also giving a faculty lecture based on my dissertation work this Friday. I am using this opportunity to structure my first paper from my dissertation. I will need to put in a lot of thinking work this week.
We went to two movies this week, both were pretty mindless. We saw The Pink Panther 2 and New in Town. They were okay but we had fun going out together and getting away from work. I heard a church today that we missed an early Mardi Gras parade in downtown Baton Rouge. Apparently, many neighborhoods have family friendly parades from now until official Mardi Gras. We hope that we can find one during this week.
The big missionary event, the photo display I wrote about before, starts tonight and then continues for two weeks. We hope to encourage a few of our friends to drop by sometime in the next few weeks.
I tried to get the young men over to our house for mutual. I made Dutch oven chicken and rice and cherry chocolate cake. We had three of the nine attend. The difficulty of the whole activity program is that all of these boys go to a variety of schools and all participate in a wide variety of activities. Sometimes I am not quite sure if they even know what they are doing from week to week. It was fun for those who came and we were able to get to know those boys better.
We did have our second video chat with Amelia’s group. It lasted about ten minutes until one of the computers broke the connection. Evie and Miriam both did some drawing and Miriam was wearing her LSU cheerleading outfit. How appropriate sense LSU was given the recognition of having the number one overall football recruiting class this last week. Maybe there is hope for the LSU football team to have a better year than they had last year. We need to attend more of the athletic events. We haven’t been very good about that yet.
We are thinking about changing our property management people here in Baton Rouge. We interviewed another group and the end of last week. We need someone who communicates more actively. We just don’t feel like we know what they are doing or if they are doing anything. We need to keep them rented.
Sophia, Curtis, and Deacon are coming to visit during the first week of April. We are looking forward to that. It will be great to see them. We will be planning some fun things to do and see. We have extra rooms and visitors might force us to buy and put up some drapes. Hope to see you soon.
We love you. Take care of each other.
Love Dad and Dana
Each week seems to get faster and faster. That might be because things at work seem accelerated. Articles that we have been working on are nearing their first stage of completion. Dana and I have one back that we need to revise. I have a small one back from the English journal that needs only minor revisions. The paper that my graduate student and I have been working on is in the first writing stage. I think we will be able to get it out for review by the first of March. I am also giving a faculty lecture based on my dissertation work this Friday. I am using this opportunity to structure my first paper from my dissertation. I will need to put in a lot of thinking work this week.
We went to two movies this week, both were pretty mindless. We saw The Pink Panther 2 and New in Town. They were okay but we had fun going out together and getting away from work. I heard a church today that we missed an early Mardi Gras parade in downtown Baton Rouge. Apparently, many neighborhoods have family friendly parades from now until official Mardi Gras. We hope that we can find one during this week.
The big missionary event, the photo display I wrote about before, starts tonight and then continues for two weeks. We hope to encourage a few of our friends to drop by sometime in the next few weeks.
I tried to get the young men over to our house for mutual. I made Dutch oven chicken and rice and cherry chocolate cake. We had three of the nine attend. The difficulty of the whole activity program is that all of these boys go to a variety of schools and all participate in a wide variety of activities. Sometimes I am not quite sure if they even know what they are doing from week to week. It was fun for those who came and we were able to get to know those boys better.
We did have our second video chat with Amelia’s group. It lasted about ten minutes until one of the computers broke the connection. Evie and Miriam both did some drawing and Miriam was wearing her LSU cheerleading outfit. How appropriate sense LSU was given the recognition of having the number one overall football recruiting class this last week. Maybe there is hope for the LSU football team to have a better year than they had last year. We need to attend more of the athletic events. We haven’t been very good about that yet.
We are thinking about changing our property management people here in Baton Rouge. We interviewed another group and the end of last week. We need someone who communicates more actively. We just don’t feel like we know what they are doing or if they are doing anything. We need to keep them rented.
Sophia, Curtis, and Deacon are coming to visit during the first week of April. We are looking forward to that. It will be great to see them. We will be planning some fun things to do and see. We have extra rooms and visitors might force us to buy and put up some drapes. Hope to see you soon.
We love you. Take care of each other.
Love Dad and Dana
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Baton Rouge Week 32
Well, we have started yet another month here in Baton Rouge. We had the two women that are in my writing group over for dinner with their two husbands. We did it on Monday night and then played aggravation for a while. It was a lot of fun. They were all pretty quick studies and picked up the game in a hurry. The Bishop came by to sign some welfare forms just as they were coming by so we got to tell them a little about who he was and what he did.
The big Reflection on Christ program starts next Sunday for two weeks. The Saturday paper had a photo blurb on the front page and then a couple of large pictures on the cover of the Life and Religious section. It was really a nice bit of coverage for the church. Here is the weblink: http://www.2theadvocate.com/features/38725227.html
I hope that this works for you all. The pictures are very nice. The ward also had an activity called a ward blitz. It was a bit like a census. The activity committee put together packets of people on the rolls that we don’t know much about. It was very interesting. Dana and I went around to about 11 addresses in a little over 2hours. We found some people and got some updates on others. Of the folks we found we were able to get some of them to accept more visits from home and visiting teachers. These are the lost sheep that maybe we can reactivate. It was followed up by a luncheon and some members stayed around and played volleyball. It is the kind of activity that a ward like ours ought to do every year. I wonder if it would be good to do a week or two before a ward dinner.
When we got home I then went to help my home teaching companion put some plywood sheeting on a shed that he is building. He has done most of it, but putting sheets of plywood on a roof alone gets to be a little tricky. I was over there for about two hours. I am not too sore all things considered. When I got home we went to the movie. We saw Inkheart. I liked it well enough.
It was a good week at work. I met with my writing group and finished up a small piece that I am sending to English Journal. It is always good to be in the English Journal, so I am hopeful for this article.
The weather has picked up a bit. I don’t think I needed a coat this week. Flowers are out all over the place. I am trying to put a few pictures on our blog.
I will be teaching a graduate class in late June and through July. I just this week posted some fliers in the English department and in the Education department. The good news is that I already have enough students to carry the class. This is great news. It is an 11% boost in pay to teach a summer class. That still gives us a most of May and most of June to take some time off. I think that we might do a couple of writing camps. We might go some place without a television and write for four straight days (8 hours-breakfast 4 hours-lunch -four hours- small dinner-long walk). Anyway that is something that we need to figure out.
We are going up to see Abbey in a couple of weeks. We are looking forward to the visit, but not the weather. I do really like Boston. I haven’t been there in the late winter. I am sure that there are things to do that don’t require people freezing to death. I am sure Abbey will have some ideas.
As you can see we are pretty boring. We do school work, church work, and then we try to see a movie and play games. We have been good about inviting people over. We will keep trying to socialize; it keeps us kind of normal. One of our new colleagues in the education department is having a few people over for the super bowl so we are going over there for a few hours.
We love you all, take care of each other.
Love Dad and Dana
Sunday, 25 January 2009
Baton Rouge Week 31
Hi there everybody.
Well, it is official; I am now the new Young Men’s president of the Baton Rouge 2nd ward. We have about 12 young men in the ward. Most of them are active, with active parents. Between the things Dana has to do and the things I have to do we have our Sundays planned out. Dana has her presidency meetings on Sundays after church. She also does most of her home teaching on Sundays as well. I think the young men’s presidency might meet on Sundays as well. Aside from that option, we might meet on Tuesday night after the young men’s activity.
We had some people over last Monday for family night. We invited my graduate student and her husband and her parents (they are about our age). We had a nice dinner and then played aggravation. I also hosted a small gathering for graduate students connected to English Education in some way. Some are in English and some are in Education. We held the activity Friday from 4:00 to 6:00. Most people left by about 6:30. It is a great way for all of them to connect with each other. It also gives us, the professors, a chance to talk about the graduate classes we are offering. For example, I am teaching a graduate class this summer and it needs to have at least five students in order to carry. So, overall it was a nice event.
During the week we were very busy. I finished some proposals for the next fall conference of NCTE. I also had a proposal to submit for a paper connected with a project in India. It is amazing how many projects can seem to show up. It is good, though; all of these projects lead to papers which equals academic work which leads to tenure. Things have been going along pretty well for us right now. We hope Dana gets an interview, but programs and job opportunities are still up in the air. The economic times are tricky. Jobs in education can still be viable, even in a bad economy. People need to retrain and more people seem to want to go into education.
The final inspections for the reconstruction on our apartment will take place tomorrow and Tuesday. Now, we have to get our property management people in gear. They are a little hard to motivate. We will be back in the swing of things with all of our property. Oh, a word to the wise. An afterhour’s locksmith in Salt Lake cost 49 dollars for the visit and 99 dollars to pick open the lock. You should make sure to have an extra key on your property somewhere or an extra in your cars. You should also make sure that your door knobs and deadbolts work. One of our tenants had a door knob that wasn’t working very well and they got in the habit of only locking the deadbolt. They made a mistake and locked both and then couldn’t get in. They want us to pay. Well, we will probably have to because it was a faulty doorknob. I would certainly have preferred to just pay to have the doorknob replaced; which, by the way, the locksmith did not replace for all of that money. Can you believe it?
Dana is working very hard as always. I seem to be able to think about a lot of things all of the time, but Dana is very good at just working very hard on a single project until she finishes.
All of the birthdays are over for the five, only Mitch’s is left next month. Amelia is now 30 years old. It is hard to believe. She is a great person. She has done so much. We are very proud of her. If any of you think we are slighting you and your birthdays, we will make it to you when you turn old as well.
We also managed to do about a ten minute video connection with Amelia’s crew today. We had a few troubling connections near the end. We are moving into the 21st century.
We love you all. Take care of each other.
Love Dad and Dana
Monday, 19 January 2009
Baton Rouge Week 30
Hi all
We started teaching this week. It basically means meeting your students and telling them that there is more work to do than they want to do. It was also a week of getting our car back from the body shop. Drive carefully, it is expensive to knock off a mirror and scrap the door.
We did manage to see a movie with a good message that will probably be missed by most people. It is called “Not Easily Broken”. It is geared to mainly a black audience. It has a Christian context and a lot of people will probably just let it slide by.
This was also one of those weeks when I had several deadlines to meet. I had to finish a submission proposal for next year’s National Council of Teacher of English conference. The deadline is always right after Christmas and just when classes are starting. I managed to get that off my plate yesterday. Then the Dean wanted a 2 page version of my academic vita. She asked Thursday and needed it by Monday. I finished that as well. So, those two things are done and I finished all the course work planning I need to do. Now I need to finish the first year review. I have to catalogue what I have done since I have been here. They make you start building the file for your tenure review from the very beginning.
I have two more small paper things to do this week, so I will take a deep breath and start again.
Dana and I got a revise and resubmit on an article that we sent out about two months ago. One review hated it, but gave out very good feedback. The second one liked it. The third seem indifferent, but suggested that we needed more international references. If we want to turn it around they gave us three months. We would like to have it done by the end of February. We have some work to do on that project that I hope to start this week.
I have started work on The ALAN Review work. We had to have pictures taken for the next issue and submitted a brief biography that will be in the next issue. I guess that will serve as a formal introduction to the work we will be doing.
It was another cold week here—20 to 30 at night and 40-60 during the day. Nevertheless, several trees are beginning to flower. I will try to add some pictures.
We think the remodeling on the apartment fire will be done this week. We have been fortunate on that account. We have had to front some of the money, but our insurance has been good. It doesn’t look like we will be out any money out of our own pockets after everything is said and done. Speaking about insurance, you should all check and make sure that your house policy covers replacement value of things and not depreciation value.
Our stake will be hosting a displayed called the “Reflections of Christ” www.reflectionsofChrist.org It was at the Mesa temple visitor center for a long time and has just finished up at the Washington D. C. Temple. It will be here for two weeks. The opening night is a fireside with the photographer and the closing night is a musical performance. Apparently some original music was composed to accompany the photographs. Mark Mabry is the photographer and there is a lot more information at the website. This is an exciting opportunity to share the gospel. We hope a lot of our neighbors will be able to attend the fireside or the display during the week. Oh! I forgot the missionaries were over for dinner and then I went with to visit Sister Lamb. She is a woman in the ward whose husband died just a couple of years ago. We worked as an accountant and property manager for years. But is passion was making violin and fiddles. He has made instruments for classical players and for county players as well. Bill Monroe played one of his fiddles and so has Ricky Skaggs and Roy Acuff. She has about a hundred instruments that she is contracting with broker to sale them as a group. Anyway, I thought it was interesting to get to know her a little better.
This is Dana. Yesterday, for the first time, I taught a class in my field, preparing principals. It is a master’s program for teachers who are interested in getting an endorsement as a principal along with their masters. It was fun to finally get to do what I was trained to do in practice and with my PhD. This class will mean a lot more work for me this semester (I have to visit 16 schools where these people are doing an internship), but I think I will like doing it. This new class and my work with the Relief Society means I have to be very structured with time. Your dad and I both thought, however, that it would be best for our physical and mental health to start working out again. We joined the LSU rec center and played racquetball this Friday and Saturday. I am about a 5 out of 10 on the soreness scale, which means being way out of shape. We hope that we will get in a rhythm to regularly workout.
We love you all. Take care of each other.
Love Dad and Dana
We started teaching this week. It basically means meeting your students and telling them that there is more work to do than they want to do. It was also a week of getting our car back from the body shop. Drive carefully, it is expensive to knock off a mirror and scrap the door.
We did manage to see a movie with a good message that will probably be missed by most people. It is called “Not Easily Broken”. It is geared to mainly a black audience. It has a Christian context and a lot of people will probably just let it slide by.
This was also one of those weeks when I had several deadlines to meet. I had to finish a submission proposal for next year’s National Council of Teacher of English conference. The deadline is always right after Christmas and just when classes are starting. I managed to get that off my plate yesterday. Then the Dean wanted a 2 page version of my academic vita. She asked Thursday and needed it by Monday. I finished that as well. So, those two things are done and I finished all the course work planning I need to do. Now I need to finish the first year review. I have to catalogue what I have done since I have been here. They make you start building the file for your tenure review from the very beginning.
I have two more small paper things to do this week, so I will take a deep breath and start again.
Dana and I got a revise and resubmit on an article that we sent out about two months ago. One review hated it, but gave out very good feedback. The second one liked it. The third seem indifferent, but suggested that we needed more international references. If we want to turn it around they gave us three months. We would like to have it done by the end of February. We have some work to do on that project that I hope to start this week.
I have started work on The ALAN Review work. We had to have pictures taken for the next issue and submitted a brief biography that will be in the next issue. I guess that will serve as a formal introduction to the work we will be doing.
It was another cold week here—20 to 30 at night and 40-60 during the day. Nevertheless, several trees are beginning to flower. I will try to add some pictures.
We think the remodeling on the apartment fire will be done this week. We have been fortunate on that account. We have had to front some of the money, but our insurance has been good. It doesn’t look like we will be out any money out of our own pockets after everything is said and done. Speaking about insurance, you should all check and make sure that your house policy covers replacement value of things and not depreciation value.
Our stake will be hosting a displayed called the “Reflections of Christ” www.reflectionsofChrist.org It was at the Mesa temple visitor center for a long time and has just finished up at the Washington D. C. Temple. It will be here for two weeks. The opening night is a fireside with the photographer and the closing night is a musical performance. Apparently some original music was composed to accompany the photographs. Mark Mabry is the photographer and there is a lot more information at the website. This is an exciting opportunity to share the gospel. We hope a lot of our neighbors will be able to attend the fireside or the display during the week. Oh! I forgot the missionaries were over for dinner and then I went with to visit Sister Lamb. She is a woman in the ward whose husband died just a couple of years ago. We worked as an accountant and property manager for years. But is passion was making violin and fiddles. He has made instruments for classical players and for county players as well. Bill Monroe played one of his fiddles and so has Ricky Skaggs and Roy Acuff. She has about a hundred instruments that she is contracting with broker to sale them as a group. Anyway, I thought it was interesting to get to know her a little better.
This is Dana. Yesterday, for the first time, I taught a class in my field, preparing principals. It is a master’s program for teachers who are interested in getting an endorsement as a principal along with their masters. It was fun to finally get to do what I was trained to do in practice and with my PhD. This class will mean a lot more work for me this semester (I have to visit 16 schools where these people are doing an internship), but I think I will like doing it. This new class and my work with the Relief Society means I have to be very structured with time. Your dad and I both thought, however, that it would be best for our physical and mental health to start working out again. We joined the LSU rec center and played racquetball this Friday and Saturday. I am about a 5 out of 10 on the soreness scale, which means being way out of shape. We hope that we will get in a rhythm to regularly workout.
We love you all. Take care of each other.
Love Dad and Dana
BR Week 29
Hi there!
Well, we have rested in the glow of the Utah defeat of the Alabama Crimson Tide. The Tide is Crimson this week because of the flushed cheeks of embarrassment. There was a lot of positive talk around here about Utah football.
We had a few meeting throughout the week. We were able to do some work for school at home and at the office. We start work schedules again tomorrow in earnest. We also saw a couple of matinee movie, just so we could still be on vacation. The weather here has been great. We had some rainy days but it usually clears up after a few hours.
We had stake conference this week. That meant a leadership meeting in the afternoon and an adult meeting in the evening. On Sunday, the meeting was a broadcast from Salt Lake to 21 Stakes in the gulf coast area. We heard from Elder Walter Gonzalez, Sis Beck, Elder Holland, and Elder Uchtdorf. All of the meetings were very good. Beginning with the leadership meeting the messages focused on the little things. The message is that the little things are the big things--reading the scriptures, saying daily prayers, and doing your best to serve your family, friends, and neighbors. I found the whole message timely and important. For example, Sister Beck said that reading the scriptures doesn’t require a system it requires a habit. Reading something every day is the important thing. Attention to other things will come as you stay in the scriptures. In the leadership meeting someone told a story about how Elder Packer asked Elder S Dilworth Young about how to deal with contention at a conference or a meeting. Elder Young said “read the scriptures.” Elder Packer asked “which ones?” Elder Young said “it doesn’t matter.” I was struck with the simply purity of that. Read the scriptures, have faith, work toward making things in all aspects of your life better.
Dana also finished here first bishop’s store house experience. We figured out when and where the truck with the orders comes in and we met the truck to pick up a couple of food orders. The church and the world needs more people doing more things for each other. We are grateful for the acts of charity and service that you have been involved in. If we all did what you kids did this Christmas season the world would be a better place.
We keep discussing the severe poverty that grips so many people in the south. We don’t understand how it continues so unabated. We are trying to understand the things that we might do related to education. “Where there is no vision the people perish.” Proverbs 29:18. We hope that good people will continue to go into education and work in communities that need help through a variety of careers.
I know that this sounds like a Sunday school lesson, but living the gospel with an eye to service helps everyone. I was also struck by how the speakers mentioned the difficult economic times but still talked about the blessings of tithing and living the gospel. Struggles will come but the gospel helps us make sense of the difficult times.
We love you. Take care of each other.
Love Dad and Dana
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