Louisiana Bickmores

Baton Rouge Year 2 Week 12

2009-09-13T16:33:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the NBA Hall of Fame Mr. Stockton!

Baton Rouge Year 2 Week 11

2009-09-06T16:28:00.000-07:00

Take at look at our Disney Collage!!

Baton Rouge Week 40

2009-03-29T14:17:00.000-07:00

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.

Baton Rouge Week 39

2009-03-22T17:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-22T15:51:00.000-07:00

Baton Rouge Week 38

2009-03-15T19:51:00.000-07:00

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.

Baton Rouge Week 37

2009-03-08T19:04:00.000-07:00

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.

Baton Rouge Week 36

2009-03-01T18:00:00.001-08:00

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.

2009-03-01T17:01:00.000-08:00

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.

Mardi Gras Pictures

2009-02-15T19:12:00.000-08:00

Castle Kirk Dr. Flowers

2009-02-15T19:07:00.000-08:00

Now, if we just knew what they are were!

Baton Rouge Week 34

2009-02-15T18:45:00.000-08:00

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

Baton Rouge Week 33

2009-02-15T18:44:00.001-08:00

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

Baton Rouge Week 32

2009-02-01T20:19:00.000-08:00

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

Baton Rouge Week 31

2009-01-25T18:45:00.000-08:00

Hi there everybody.

Well, it is official; I am now the new Young Men’s president of the Baton Rouge 2^nd 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 21^st century.

We love you all. Take care of each other.

Love Dad and Dana

Baton Rouge Week 30

2009-01-19T19:50:00.000-08:00

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

BR Week 29

2009-01-19T19:49:00.000-08:00

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

2009 Sugar Bowl--Utes Win!

2009-01-04T17:07:00.000-08:00

If you didn't watch this game you missed out completely.

It was a fantastic game. The Utes started quickly and out coached Sabin all the way.

Baton Rouge Weeks 27-28

2009-01-04T16:23:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

I should never skip a week, even if I am on vacation. We left Baton Rouge on December 22 and arrived back here on Jan 1, 2009, a new year.

We arrived in Las Vegas in the evening of the 22^nd. I fought a little bit of a head cold for a lot of the time I was on vacation. I am feeling better now. It was mainly a bother during the night when I was trying to sleep. Which helped a lot, because none of my relatives or children really believe in going to bed early.

On Tuesday we checked out of the hotel and went to our friends’ house for lunch. Teresa, worked with Dana in Jordan District, and her husband, Paul have retired to Las Vegas. They have a nice house and Teresa fixed us a nice lunch. We chatted for a couple of hours and then planned to meet Kent for a ride to St. George. He was in town to pick up his in-laws. They were supposed to arrive at 4:00, but weather delayed flights all over the place so they didn’t get in until almost 9:00 pm. We rolled in to St. George at about 11:30. We slept in and had a nice time talking with Mom and Dad, Dawn and Greg, and Mica and Michael. We talked, we played aggravation and greed; basically, we relaxed on Christmas Eve. We did eat red beans and rice.

On Christmas day we got up, ate breakfast and tried to beat the snow up to Salt Lake. The weather was remarkable good. We only had a little bit of fog before the Kolob Canyon turn off. After that, it was smooth sailing. It was a good thing. I think they had snow in Salt Lake most of the day and at around 10:00 it snowed heavily for most of the night. Cold weather was everywhere. It makes you wonder why people with options choose to live there. On Christmas evening Bill and Mary held their annual dinner (usually it is on Christmas Eve) at Suzie and Byron’s house. They held it for us. They shouldn’t have, but it was great to see everyone.

We did stop in Orem to pick up Mitch; he was only in Utah for a bit. He had to leave the day after Christmas to help with a soccer clinic. We talked with on the road, played some games at Terry’s (Terry and Kim put is up in Salt Lake) before the dinner, and in an act of extreme kindness got up early in the morning, drove over ice packed roads to take Mitch to the airport for early flight. We wish him well in his school pursuits and in his new coaching situation.

We also made it over to Curt and Cindy’s place. They recently bought a new home and we were excited to see the place and hear about all of their plans.

We had a great time at dinner with all of our kids at Sophia’s house (Friday night I think). We played aggravation. We watched deacon play with the slide and the new work bench. It was all very interesting. Deacon only fussed when he knew we were all playing while he went to bed.

On Saturday we meet Abbey and Isaac and Lesley for lunch at La Frontera (what a great lunch place). Isaac and Lesley went to Roy for the rest of Saturday. We hung out with Abbey for the rest of the day which was really nice. It was great to talk with her. She is doing so well in Boston. We were also able to catch a movie. We saw Marley and Me. I actually thought it was very good. Even though Curtis hates every Owen Wilson movie.

Sunday was a great landmark day. We help Isaac and Lesley bless baby Wil. It was great even though Isaac and Lesley were the last ones to show up. They may be late to almost everything and forget to bring the diaper bag to a lot of events, but they seem to remember to bring the baby. We are really proud of their family. Wil has grown tremendously and is a very happy baby. We loved spending time with Wil. Soon he and Deacon will be traveling to visit us in Baton Rouge.

After the church meetings we went to see Dana’s Aunt and Uncle, Kent and Judith, in Sugar House. We had a nice discussion with them and it was great to get a chance to catch up on the coming and goings of their family.

Lisa had everyone over for dinner Sunday evening. It was nice for her to have us over for dinner. We played trivial pursuit. Too many people—Too many opinions and a ton of noise. I think we all have too much to say to each other to also think hard about questions.

We drove by our property and also made arrangements to talk with our property management people in Salt Lake. It looks like they are doing a good job we should be able to write a lot of the trip off of our taxes.

Finally, Monday afternoon we were able to stop in and see Jack and Julie. Again, it was great to catch up on all of their family. Monday night we had a pizza diner with Terry’s crew and played “golf”, another new game that we learned.

Tuesday, we had a birthday breakfast for Abbey and Sophia. Of course, Sophia did most of the cooking. Lisa added some great potatoes and I brought the best part of all—some store bought Orange Juice. Seriously, it was a great breakfast and we got to watch Deacon go down the slide, do his dance, dance, dance routine, and play with his tools from the work bench. It was a lot of fun. We loved being there with Abbey and Sophia for their birthday celebration. Unfortunately, we had to flee Salt Lake back to St. George. We had a easy drive back to Saint George. We left a little bit early so that we wouldn’t have to fight snow or bad weather.

The next morning we washed the car, looked for printer/scanner/faxer/stapler/babysitter/ the works, and we managed to find a cable so that Mom and Dad can use their video/DVD player again. I think I am going to order the HP printer online for a big discount tonight. We also watched LSU beat down Georgia Tech. I was surprised, but happy. I sure wish UGA could have managed to beat them for their last game. We played aggravation and unfortunately the girls in the house dominated the games. Not, a good way to end the year for the boys. I am blaming Michael; he is new to the combination.

New Years Day we were up and on our way to Las Vegas for the flight back to New Orleans. We got into the Big Easy at about 4:30. Our friends picked us up and we headed to Baton Rouge. We were trying to get to Baton Rouge before Bill and Mary’s flight arrived. We went out for dinner on the way home. We slept in and then moved on to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl. Go Utes. It was a great time. The first quarter was tremendous—the Utes put up 21 unanswered points and then fought on to win. We had some friends who happened to be in church last Sunday with members of the U of U football team. Here is what happened in sacrament meeting.

Here is the link to the story in the New Orleans Times-Picayune from last Monday.

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/12/for_some_university_of_utah_fo.html

The last two paragraphs are the funniest part, and it was even funnier in person.

We had a great time with Bill and Mary and got them safely on their way after church today.

We love you all. Take care of each other. Work hard and stay close to the gospel.

I am going to try so hard not to miss another week. It is too hard to try and catch up.

Love Dad and Dana

2008-12-21T18:19:00.000-08:00

2008-12-21T18:14:00.000-08:00

2008-12-21T18:10:00.000-08:00

train video 1

2008-12-21T18:02:00.000-08:00

2008 Christmas Tree

2008-12-21T18:00:00.000-08:00

Baton Rouge Week 26

2008-12-21T17:53:00.000-08:00

Hi all

We were done with school but seemed like we needed to do school stuff almost every day. For example we had to make sure that grades were submitted. We also had to go to meeting about a possible partnership with our college and a college in Tanzania. Dana had some meetings about the teaching schedule for her department. We did finally manage to get our paper submitted to a journal. It took some doing but we sent it off Thursday evening.

I had to give the missionaries rides a couple of time this week. The ward mission leader was sick. They do have bikes but sometimes they need rides at night. The roads are horrible for bike riding, especially if you have a specific destination. At night it is worse. They had to practice for their part in the ward Christmas party. The ward party was Friday. It was a Cajun Christmas; the food was a variety of gumbos. It was all very good. It was pretty well attended with a few non-members in attendance. We invited some people who didn’t end up coming. Oh well, we will keep trying. They should probably have our ward party earlier in the month. Our ward is still pretty dependant on the University so a lot of people leave as soon as they can after the semester.

We had a great day Friday. The cabinet installer was able to come and put in the cabinets in the laundry room. We just need to get the granite on the little 18 x 32 floor unit. It has a large drawer and two cabinet doors below. We also now have three cabinets above the washer and the dryer. I have added pictures on the blog showing the laundry room. The laundry room might be done by the time we get back. Our contractor has a small opening between jobs.

I have also added a picture of the Christmas tree (Georgia Dollar General Purchase), complete with the trains. I also have a couple mediocre videos of the trains in action. Notice, I have two and most of you have…?

We are frantically trying to get ready to leave for our trip to Utah. We are folding clothes, paying bills, and making final arrangements.

Dana was sustained and set apart as the Relief Society President today. It is all a little overwhelming for her. She is wondering how she can do justice to the women in the ward and still try to be a new professor.

We love you and are looking forward to seeing you all in Utah.

Take care of each other.

Love Dad and Dana

2008-12-14T17:58:00.000-08:00

Louisiana snow!

Some university student had time for a snowman even in the midst of finals.

Mike the LSU tiger was out roaming around his pen all day. If you browse the LSU Reveille website you can find even more pictures of the big cat playing in the snow.

Baton Rouge Week 25

2008-12-14T17:57:00.001-08:00

Hi all

We have seen a lot of firsts here in Baton Rouge: Biggest Hurricane in the city’s history, the worst LSU football season in a long time 7-5, and the largest snow storm in at least 50 years. We woke up Thursday to a winter wonderland. Local school closed but the university kept at the finals schedule so that people could finish. Snow stayed on the ground most of the day and the next day temperature were back up to 70 degrees. Here is the web address for the university newspaper http://www.lsureveille.com/ you should be able to see some picture there if I can’t get them on to the blog.

Dana is improving as the days go along. She is still subject to getting tired after working hard. She has finished up grades but is working hard before we go to Utah to finish a paper or two so that she can have them in review as she makes application for jobs. We work at the school for four hours yesterday. Then she kept working at home for the afternoon while I did a few Christmas errands. We have been behind with Christmas preparations this year. Dana’s hospital visit slowed the pace of things. It is fine, it is better to put family needs first before all of the frills.

I have also finished my grading except for one graduate student. She has an independent study and her deadline is this Tuesday. I am actually looking forward to reading her paper when it comes in. That leaves me to spend this week doing house stuff, Christmas stuff, and some writing. I would like to write about four hours in the morning each day this week, and then work around the house listening to Christmas music, and then finish up the shopping or wrapping.

Maybe we will catch up on some movies. We went to see Australia last Friday night. I liked it but it is long. I thought it was maybe trying to be two movies about the same people.

I haven’t found the time to get involved with any basketball at all. I like both college ball and the NBA, just no time. I must admit that I am looking forward to the bowl games that I am connected to in some way. That is about the only sporting events I can get involved with. I just hope Raymond is following the Giants again. They have had a great season so far and have only lost that idiot who shot himself with his own gun. I like the overall image that the Giants seem to produce. I am so done with the Dallas Cowboys.

We are proud of Sophia generous holiday contribution at the McDonald house. If you don’t know what she has done check out her picture of the project on her blog at http://www.deaconsmommy.blogspot.com/ (for those of you new to links inside of texts just move the mouse arrow over the blue part and then hold down the control button and click the mouse key, the right side or you can cut and paste the address into the address bar of google). The bonus is that you will get to see a ton of pictures of Deacon. I was impressed with the wide variety of people who help her in a variety of ways.

We also want to tell Abbey how proud we were of her Sub 4 Santa efforts. A few weeks ago she asked her Bishop if the ward had a project. She volunteered to head one up, perfect for a member of the activities committee. The ward has six family home evening groups and they provided for six families in transition in the Boston area. You can check out her report and excitement at her blog: http://abbeysmind.blogspot.com/.

As far as I am concerned this is the best kind a Christmas that a child can provide a parent. We don’t need anything else.

Walker turned 20 this Saturday. His constant service as a missionary is another example of charity. I am sure that he has learned much and is growing in his testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. His service to the people of the areas in which he serves will be blessed in ways that he can’t even imagine. We are reminded often of his work because we see the missionaries so frequently. We had them over for dinner this Thursday night. Yes, the snow day. They were going go bike the six miles to our house and then over to another member appointment. I told them to bag that, I picked them up and then drove them to the next place and then they had a ride from there. The mission here is trying to involve the members more, imagine that. Our family mission plan has two major foci. We plan to invite neighbors and friends to any ward function that has been designed for socialization of the members and for missionary work. For example, we are having a Cajun Christmas this Friday at the ward house so we are inviting a few people. We will invite and they can decide. We are also trying to invite some non member friends for dinner at least one Monday a month for a family night. Combined with that, we are trying to invite ward members over for family night on a different Monday. Two other small things are having the missionaries help people move (we know lots of people who move around) and carry pass along cards. Lots of people say “have a blessed day,” aren’t they just begging for a pass along card? So, how can you help?

We have a ton going on here in Baton Rouge but it is time for people to make plans for a visit.

We love you. Take care of each other.

Dad and Dana

Baton Rouge Week 24

2008-12-08T19:22:00.000-08:00

Hi all

This has been a fairly straight forward week. It was work and rest, work and rest, and more work and rest. It was the final week of classes and Dana went and taught on Monday. It was probably her most interesting class because she taught partly under the influence of lortab. She then went home to rest. She also had previously invited the student teachers she supervisors over for dinner and their final work. I cooked dinner. We had barbeque chicken, new red potatoes with onions, green pepper, and red peppers, and a green salad. For desert we had some cookies. Alas, they were not homemade. We had purchased cookie dough from the neighborhood children.

Then I had my final class on Wednesday. For their final my students need to bring their final project and be ready to explain it to the others. Hopefully, I will be done with grade by Thursday. I have a mini English department conference on Thursday. I hope that doesn’t get in the way of finishing the semester.

Dana’s writing group gave her good and important feedback on the paper we are trying to get out for review. So, we hope to have that finished before we go to Utah. I have another small paper that I need to send to the English Journal. My writing group will be looking at that tomorrow.

Dana had a conference to attend in Washington D. C. This was scheduled almost a year ago. She is presenting with the reading specialist from Jordan School District. They are reporting on the elementary balance literacy project that seemed to work well. Dana went back to the doctor before the trip. She is healing fine. The doctor did tell that she will continue to be tired for about three weeks. She just needs to make sure to rest.

I am working hard planning for the ALAN Review. I am planning on spending about a morning a week working on this project. This week I made a big list of information that we need to get from the old group. It will be a big task but we seem to be on top of the project.

As you can tell we are plenty busy trying to get work done.

Yesterday, I drove with some people to Slidell where the church has a bishop’s storehouse and a canning facility. I canned a variety of foods for storage. I didn’t do a massive amount. I just tried things we eat: spaghetti, macaroni, rice, red beans, white beans, and pinto beans. I also bought some new things we haven’t used before dried onions, carrots, and apples. We also are going to try some dried milk and hot chocolate. If you don’t have a plan I really think that you need to get started. Gas is down to about 1.65 here. I am tempted to put the same amount of money in a small account every time I buy gas and see how much money I have in a year. We seem to get by in the hard times but we don’t seem to plan and prepare during the good times. We are planning to deliberate us the food storage by making at least one meal a week from the food storage stuff.

Our next big project is to finishing the laundry room. We have the cabinets purchased and we are waiting for the installer to have a day open to come and put them in. It will save us a little bit of money by contracting directly with him.

We are still dealing with the aftermath of the fire in the fourplex. We have the check from the insurance and even after the deductible we should not have to come up with too much out of pocket money. The insurance amount and our contractor estimates were very close. It really helps to have a contractor who knows the area and has worked with habitat for humanity. The standard for that construction is perfect for rebuilding an apartment. They have gutted the apartment and I have not had to do a thing. Great! I will go over and look at it tomorrow. We should be able to rent it right after the new year when we get back to town.

The Utes are in the Sugar bowl against Alabama, a team that was number one for much of the season. I think whoever controls the passing game (either offensively or defensively) wins. Georgia is in the Capital One bowl against Michigan State. I think this should be a really good game. BYU plays Arizona in the Pioneer Bowl. Wow! BYU has a good chance with Arizona in down year. It is a gift, but LSU got in the Chick-fil-A bowl in Atlanta against Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech beat Georgia in a free for all and Georgia really took it to LSU, especially in the second half. LSU had better duck and cover.

We love you. Take care of each other.

Love Dad and Dana

Baton Rouge Week 23

2008-11-30T18:12:00.000-08:00

Hi all

Well, this was an eventful week.

My conference in San Antonio was to continue through Tuesday. Tuesday morning Dana called. I had a little bit of stomach grumbling on Saturday and Sunday. Dana wasn’t feeling well (she had severe gas pains) and called to see if mine were similar. She thought I had given it to her or she had appendicitis. I finally convinced her to go to the doctor. That was an event all by itself.

My original flight back was 6:30 getting back at 10:00. I hurried to the airport to change to a 4:30 flight. I got to the airport at 2:50 and was able to get a 3:30 flight to Houston with an earlier connecting flight to Baton Rouge. I almost missed the Houston flight. I talked with Dana briefly before the San Antonio flight. I only had time between the San Antonio flight and the Houston flight to briefly call her visiting teaching companion. The flight attendant was forcing me to turn off the phone. I was able to say “Yorka, Dana has appendicitis. She is Lady of the Lake hospital.” Yorka was surprised that the call was so short, but she was able to find Dana at the hospital before the surgery.

I arrived in Baton Rouge at 6:45. I was able to talk briefly before the operation at 7:00 and Yorka picked me up at the airport. I was at the hospital before the operation was done and talked to the doctor when he came out. Dana did fine. She was able to check out of the hospital by about 3:00 in the afternoon on Wednesday.

We had a very quiet day on Thanksgiving. We had plenty of food in the house (Thanksgiving afternoon one of my graduate student and her mother fixed us a couple of plates that we ate off of for two days) and I went and bought a few more things on Wednesday afternoon. We were able to see a movie early Friday afternoon and again early Saturday. Dana took naps in the afternoon. We have been watching tv (we are making good sense of our dvr).

I have been reading some of the Young Adult novels I got as a participant in the ALAN conference. I brought back 53 books. I will be reading even more YA novels over the next five years. Don’t worry; I am attaching a membership form to this email. That way you can all open it and join up.

I made a small Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. Dana hasn’t felt much like eating for the last few days. Dinner was nice and now we have leftovers for the next few days.

Dana has one more class to teach tomorrow before finals. I think I will take her up for that and then bring her home. My students are working on final projects. The work here is winding down for the semester.

It was a rough week for football. LSU lost to Ole Miss and Georgia lost to Georgia Tech for the first time in seven years. That left Utah at 12-0, BYU at 10-2, UGA at 9-3, and LSU at a lowly 7-5. LSU really suffered at the quarterback position.

Dana really appreciated all of the phone calls. I should have called more people, but I was busy taking care of Dana. I feel like I can catch up now.

My students are working on final projects for the rest of the semester. Hopefully, I can do the final grading for everything except the final project this week. I then will get back to writing, planning for the ALAN review, and preparing courses for next semester.

We are also carefully watching for the bowl announcements next week. There is a good chance that Utah might get a placement at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. If so we might come back early and try to go.

We love you. Take care of each other.

Dad and Dana

This is Dana. I might say that the last week was less than stellar for me. Dad forgot to tell you I have been worried about my new calling and choosing advisors. On Friday, my birthday, I wrecked the car. I backed up into the pillars of the car port, tore off the passenger side rearview mirror, and scraped the heck out of the door. The lovely painful appendicitis just topped off the whole week. What I learned from all this is that people love you even when you are an idiot, people who hardly know you are kind and generous, and how much I love all of you for thinking of me. I don’t know if it is the medication or just feeling pretty darn humble, but I have been exceptionally emotional the last four days. Besides crying at an ATT commercial, I feel so fortunate to have married and been born into a family that is so wonderful. I love you all and thank you so much for thinking of me.

Dana

BR week 22

2008-11-23T13:56:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone! How are you doing? I figure if I ask a questions some of you might send a small reply. Well, one can hope can’t he? As long as I am pointing out gaps in your character, I should mention that more of you need to be writing Walker. It doesn’t have to be long (My word, he doesn’t write much sometimes, but he is writing.) just write about what you are thinking, doing, studying, experience, or how great it is that he is doing what he is doing.

I liked hearing, over the last week, some of your plans for Christmas service. One of the best presents I have ever received was the report on the service projects that you all did last year for Christmas. This year, Abbey is helping to organize some sub for Santa work in the area around Cambridge. Good luck. Sophia has plans to help redecorate a room at one of the Charity houses (I think the McDonald house). It is great to hear about all of this. I look forward to the updates as the season goes along.

I have been in San Antonio for the annual National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) conference. It is always the weekend before Thanksgiving. I generally miss Dana’s birthdayL! She did get a great gift though. I generally room with Chris Crowe, an English Education professor from BYU, and Nate Phillips, a former teacher and current graduate student at Vanderbilt. It has been a good week so far. I stay until Tuesday. The NCTE conference ends today, but the ALAN workshop continues on Monday and Tuesday.

I AM THE NEW EDITOR OF THE ALAN REVIEW. What does this mean for you? Well, you should all subscribe to the Journal. It is only 20 dollars and it would boost the circulation rate. Hum, maybe I know what people are getting for Christmas. The editorial team will consist of me and two others. The others are Jackie Bach, who is at LSU with me and Melanie Hundley, who is at Vanderbilt and was a student at UGA when I was there. We shared an office for two years. The search committee narrowed the interview pool to five editorial teams. They interviewed all of them Saturday. Saturday, at about 6:00 pm, the chair of the committe called me and asked if I was ready to spend five years working really hard. I will be the lead editor, only for organization purposes. Both women are very smart and extremely organized, I will try to do what they say. We did a very thorough job preparing for the interview. The initial application took some work but once we made the next level we did work to understand the history of the journal and the potential future. We put together a small packet, six pages, with a mock up of a new sample cover. (Every new team of editors puts together a cover and we had another friend from UGA put together a quick black line drawing. I will send it along next week as an attachment when I can get to a scanner.) We felt very comfortable with our preparation and when the interview was over I felt very relaxed. O.K. I had a headache the size of Cincinnati due to some flu symptoms. The day before, I ate something that caused a serious grumbling and frequent trips…. I think I was slightly dehydrated. I had to meet my major professor for lunch after the interview. I sipped a drink and played like I was eating a taco. I went to the hotel and slept and watched TV off and on for about 4 hours. It was a great day, to celebrate I had dinner with Jackie and another colleague. Here I am in the Heart of Texas with Mexican food all around me and I ate a light French soup and a sprite.

Georgia did not play, which was probably good for them. They need to get ready to play a surging Georgia Tech next week. LSU got spanked at home by Ole Miss. It was ugly. I think there is a full suicide watch in Baton Rouge, heck, maybe the whole state of Louisiana. Utah just took apart BYU from the information we have been able to get. I think Dana listened to it through the internet so she might have more to say about it. She is a true red Utah fan while I try to hope for the best for both. I do, however find myself drifting to BYU when they go against each other. Utah has had a great season and should get a great bowl placement. Go Utes!

The Jazz played in San Antonio while I was here and lost again. We will have to check with Mitch, but I think they have lost in San Antonio something like 24 straight times. How many years in a row is that without a win in San Antonio.

By the way, The Alamo is tiny. I can’t imagine what it would fell like to be absolutely outnumbered and surrounded.

We are going to be in St. George for Christmas. We think we will drive up to Salt Lake Christmas afternoon. We look forward to seeing everyone, especially little Wil.

We love you all. Take care of each other.

Love Dad and Dana

House Slide Show

2008-11-16T18:45:00.000-08:00

The Music is by The Carter Family--My Native Home

Baton Rouge Week 21

2008-11-16T17:34:00.000-08:00

Another week, another dollar. We are sitting here in our house after church and we are truly suffering. The house temperature is 65 and we can’t get the heat to go on. Every time we have some work done in the attic someone touches a wire and then the air conditioner or the heater doesn’t go on when we hit the switch. This house has a security system that was old and needed to be slightly rewired. That all happened Friday afternoon. I crawled around in the attic but I don’t know what I am looking at. We will have the contractor look at it again. We need to get a new thermostat.

We struggled along with work this week. I have been getting a lot done for the interview next week. This is the week I go to San Antonio for the NCTE conference. Our interview for the editorship of the ALAN Review is next Saturday morning at 10:00. We have done a lot of preparation and we hope it goes well. We have good support from our Universities.

Today we add a “linger longer” after church. Basically, people bring a variety of food and desserts. Then after church they sit around and eat and talk. It is nice for all of the people to get to know each other.

Saturday we went up to Jackson, Louisiana. It is about 20 miles north of Baton Rouge. They have a weekend once a year that sponsors Highland Games. They have piping, drums, dancing, dancing lessons and highland games. There are athletic games where big guys throw logs, giant stuffed bags of hey with a pitch fork over a tall bar, a modified hammer through, and a big rock. They also have a bunch of activities for kids—scaled down tools of the athletic games for them to practice with. They also bring in some musical groups from around the country. It is a pretty big deal. They bring in a judge for the pipes, the drums, pipe bands, and dancing. They also had some demonstrations with border collies moving sheep around. It was pretty cool. There was also a bunch of booths with Scottish stuff. One lady will measure you for a kilt and then they bring in the fabric from Scotland and make it here. They also have set up a bunch of clan booths. Dana asked about the history of Scots in the area. Apparently, one of the big migrations was between 1830-1845. One of the big settling points was in North Carolina. They seemed to migrate to a variety of places in the south. Quite a few moved to the New Orleans area, even before the Revolution, and got along better with the French than the English.

The biggest bonus was that the Baton Rouge Model Railroad club has a building up there. They have trains in every scale, including a garden railroad. It was fun. It was even a little windy and wet, so it even felt a bit like Scotland. One of the entertainment fiddlers said that usually he has to have people imagine the wind and the cold of Scotland, but today was pretty close. We should have taken some chairs, a blanket, and a cooler with food. Most people kind of set up a picnic area. I think next we will go more prepared for the whole deal. We might even dance. Dana is a Highland Lassie from way back.

There was also a small four day bluegrass festival in a small RV park about 4 miles out of Jackson. We stopped by to check it out. It looked like there were a bunch of old people, yes older than us. There was a small building and the bands rotate about every hour. There seemed to be about five bands. We might go next year and stay overnight. It was a fun day. We are trying to spend some time getting to know the area around Baton Rouge. We haven’t been to the Tabasco plant yet, but it is close in New Iberia.

Amelia set us up with a blog a few weeks ago. I have been experimenting with it for a bit. Here is the web address: http://louisianabicks.blogspot.com/

I have posted a few house pictures and some pictures of the highland games, including two fine shoots of some Highland Coos.

Mitch was upset that I haven’t mentioned the Jazz. Go Jazz. They sit at 6-4. They seem to be having a little trouble on the road.

Go Utes! They a have done great. BYU managed to win against Air Force. LSU had to have their superior athletes score 30 points in the last quarter to beat a lower division Troy. I think that it just showed that bigger, stronger, and faster, especially in skill positions paid off. I know you are all dying to hear about the dawgs. They managed to hold off Auburn. Auburn has had a horrible year and Georgia should be able to take them apart. Georgia is starting several freshman on the offensive line. And the defensive secondary is young. They really are hoping to just get through the year. Florida, unfortunately, looks like the real deal.

We love you take care of each other.

Love Dad and Dana

2008-11-15T18:44:00.000-08:00

Hungry for Your Love--Wavelength

Louisiana Highland Games

2008-11-15T17:45:00.000-08:00

We went to the highland games in Jackson, Louisiana. It is about 20 miles away from Baton Rouge. Pipes, fiddles, drums, highland coo's, border collies, dancing, and men throwing stuff. Oh, yes, there were kilts galore. The bonus of the day was a model railroad display inside and out.

Van the Man

2008-11-13T17:19:00.000-08:00

If you don't own a Van Morrison album, you are missing out. Start with Moondance, Wavelength, or Avalon Sunset.

Finally, Ute Defense

2008-11-11T14:09:00.000-08:00

Now, that's what I am talking about.

Go Dawgs!

2008-11-11T13:25:00.000-08:00

This is not just a block!
It was an interception that stole Kentucky's final opportunity to score.

Baton Rouge Week 20

2008-11-09T19:26:00.001-08:00

Baton Rouge Week 20 Nov. 9
Things seemed much the same this week. For some reason I felt like I had a lot to do at the university this week. My committee work in the English department seemed to kick up. In addition, I had a teaching coordination for the Geaux Teach program. I had a luncheon for new faculty to talk about mentoring.
We did have the missionaries over Thursday for dinner and a message. They wanted to talk to us about the ward mission plan. The ward has a mission plan which is basically that every family should have a plan. We are still thinking about what we should do. We need to be good examples of course, but we are thinking about pass along cards, and inviting people to ward activities.
I was able to finish the same paper I was working on. I sent it off on Tuesday. Now I am dedicating writing time to finishing the paper that Dana and I have going. The biggest part to finish is mine and I am having some structural problems with the whole thing.
The people I am working with on the editorship and I have a lot of work to do before the NCTE conference in two weeks. I have been talking with people who know the history of the journal. I hope that this will give me a better idea of how our ideas will move the journal along.
We spent some time yesterday doing some final cleaning from the construction. The goop and glue on the windows of the new French doors was very difficult to scrap off. Dana finally solved the problem by using mineral spirits on the tough spots. It still took time to scrap around the edges with a razor blade.
Georgia won, it was ugly but I’ll take it. LSU lost in overtime to Alabama. BYU won again. Go Utes. They won a close one against TCU. On the radio, it sounded like they started in a hole and just kept working away at the win. I think they will have to credit the defense.
There is a town near here that has some Scottish games, Jackson, Louisiana. I think we are going to try and go see them for a bit next week.
Love Dad and Dana

2008-11-02T16:57:00.000-08:00

Baton Rouge Week 19 November 2

2008-11-02T16:19:00.000-08:00

We have had a good week. Earlier in the week or maybe last Sunday we invited some families to go to the wards trunk or treat activity. The ward had at least 20 families set up cars with decorated trunks. We decorated ours as a sleeping bag by spreading out an old sleeping bag over everything else in the trunk. The high priest brought chili and Dana volunteered to bring a cake for the cake walk activity.
Our next door neighbor showed up with his two oldest kids-five and four. They walked around the trunk and treat set up and then went inside with us for the food and the cake walk. Paul had a lot of questions about Mormons. He is a native from the area and a Catholic with very little exposure to Mormons. We were happy that they came by. It was a testimony to me that doing missionary work is really a basic task of being a member of the LDS church. But it is a task. I think the thing he found most surprising was that one of the buildings (remember the temple is right next to our chapel) has a full size basketball court. What do those Mormons really believe in? Paul had a few questions about the church organization and beliefs. We felt blessed that they felt comfortable enough to come and socialize with us. We hope that we will have other opportunities to invite them and that we have the courage to do it. Oh! He was also interested that we used cool music to help with the cake walk. It should be noted that his oldest-Sierra help me win a cake in the cake walk. We had them take it home for the rest of their family. Don’t worry I took a cake tax.
I received the opportunity this week to submit a small article to a large regional English Journal sponsored by the New England Council of Teacher of English. The journal is called the Leaflet and has been published for 100 years by English teachers in the New England area. It is a small paper about providing your own professional development by reading professional books. I review 5 current books. When I say small, I mean about 2000 words or 8 typed pages. It is not research but it gets my name out there. As a result it slows down other work. I planned to finish the edits on the paper Dana and I are working on. Instead, I will be doing that this week.
My teaching is coming along just fine. Unfortunately, my students are just now getting to the hard work of producing a teaching unit. Most of what they have done is reading and reporting. Now they have to produce. We are also trying to pick a time to have them over to the house. I might have them over for class and then a barbeque. I need to look at the schedule. The students are busy and seem to go in a variety of directions with classes, work, and social life.
Friday night, as we were passing out trick or treat candy, I had some great news. I had applied to be an editor of The ALAN Review with two other colleagues. One colleague is here at LSU (Jackie) and one is at Vanderbilt (Melanie). Melanie and I shared an office at UGA. The journal focuses on Young Adult Literature. We have been picked as one of the teams to go through the interview process at the NCTE conference in a couple of weeks. This is a great opportunity. We feel very lucky to be included. We now need to do a few things to prepare. We don’t know who the competition is, but a professor I know at BYU was the chair of the last selection committee. He did apply and he told me he would answer some questions and provide advice and direction.
It looks like another busy week or two. We are finding that it is very important to set aside consistent writing time. It seems that some project, some meeting, some conversation, or something always can take you away from slowly working toward finished projects. So far, they project I still want to work on. Even though a professor can control much of their own time and activity, everyone expects productivity. Almost everyone we know, who seems to do this successfully, has a writing schedule. I know that the biggest progress for me come with the projects that are fixed. For example, I have a project with a graduate student and we work every Tuesday and Thursday from 9-11 in the morning. That project is moving right along. The two papers that we have out were important so I thought about the week and planned out the writing. It seems to be hardest for me when I finish a project and have to start another. I need to think of some trick to force me into a transition. I just heard a story about Trollope a prolific Victorian novelist (more than sixty). When he finished a novel he would turn over the last page and right a title for the next book.
We bought some green towels and mats for the blue bathroom. Who knew that there would be so many different greens that just wouldn’t work with that particular blue? I will try to take a picture. We also bought a toaster. It is shining silver so; when you visit don’t touch it. It is amazing that so many of the new styles seem difficult to maintain.
Walker seems to be doing so well on his mission. I send him this letter every week, but I also try to send him a small personal letter each week. I am probably hit about three out of four. I’ll bet that I am doing better than most of you. This is 19 weeks in a row of writing a letter and I actually look forward to doing each Sunday.
Amelia set me up with a blog that I could not quite use for about a week. I thought it was a cruel joke. I am not quite sure how I feel about the whole blog thing. I’ll try it out for awhile.
Football. I am sorry to say that Georgia was destroyed by Florida. The worst part of the loss was that Georgia handed them five touchdowns (at least) due to turnovers and penalties. It was painful to watch. The agony was heightened by the fact that Dana thought she had lost some new reading glasses. Fortunately, they turned up in the car. LSU played Tulane, which really shouldn’t count as a game at this point. They need to beat someone so that they can find the courage to face Alabama who should visit Baton Rouge next Saturday as the new number one this week. BYU was apparently in a shootout with Colorado State. They better figure the weak showing they have had over the last few weeks if they expect to face Utah without embarrassment. Utah is now 9 wins and no losses after beating New Mexico 13-10. I need better reports about those Utah games. They do not get much national play on the television. I think the TCU game get national coverage next week and should be one of the real big games next week.
I just finished reading a book about a doctor who works to provide health care to third world populations. It is Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer A Man Who Would Cure the World. This was a very interest book about an American doctor who established a clinic for the poor in rural Haiti. His influence was important as he worked there while maintaining a position at Harvard and Brighams Woman and Children in the Boston area.
This is Dana. Other than what your dad talked about, my class and watching student teachers takes a lot of time. I am trying to write consistently in the morning, but the other work seems to get in the way. I have an article from my dissertation I am trying to write. I am also working with a group of professors on a research project that just doesn’t seem to get off the ground. I am hoping that we get started fairly soon so I will have information to write about once this article is done. I have applied for a professor position at Southeastern Louisiana University in Educational Leadership for next year. There will be an opening at LSU next year in educational leadership, but I am not guaranteed the position, so I am not putting all my eggs in one basket. I will be applying to local school districts as well. I will keep you all posted.
We missed all of you during Halloween. We missed seeing Deacon, Miriam, and Evie in person in costume (and maybe even wee little Will). We also missed the pumpkins brains at Dad and Mary’s. We are trying to be “Grandparent types” here, but it is not the same as being around family. Y’all take care and know we pray for each of you and love all of you.
Love and take care of each other
Dad and Dana

Baton Rougue Week 18

2008-10-27T06:01:00.000-07:00

Monday was a nice day. We had a few people over for dinner. I made red beans and rice. One couple brought salad. The other guest, a single sister and her older son, brought some bread. We had a nice chat with dinner, a brief lesson focused on the home teaching message, and then we played "Greed". It was nice to have some people over. We had cake and ice cream for dessert. We have a ton of red beans left over. I still cook for too many, but we are trying to eat moderately and freeze the rest. So, now we have red beans for tomorrow without having to do anything tomorrow evening except cook some rice.
We are still trying to plan out meals. We have enjoyed eating at home and are not eating out much. The kitchen has been great. We are trying to make things from scratch. We are trying to store what we eat and learn to have leftovers. For example, during the week we had couple of sausages left over from the red beans. I cooked a package of mixed colored pasta and then mixed in some onion, olives, a little celery, a little carrot. We used it as a side for the sausage and then we saved the rest. Two days later we opened a can of tuna put it in the pasta and added some salad dressing. It was great. Do you see how exciting our lives are?
I had lunch with a colleague in the English department last Wednesday. It is nice to get to know some people. He is also new here at LSU. He was at a small liberal arts college and is now here as an associate professor teaching Shakespeare. I am also meeting with a graduate student who teaches the Young Adult literature course this week.
We are working hard here. We have another paper almost done. We had a good week this week. At the faculty meeting they announced that there will be an opening in educational leadership. We need your support and prayers so that Dana can do her best and things will fall into place. Last Sunday afternoon we drove to Hammond, Louisiana. It is about 40 miles away and there is a college there Southeastern Louisiana. They have an opening in Ed leadership, so we drove over to check it out.
On the way back we stopped in at a state park that has cabin for rent. They are 90 dollars a night. They were pretty nice. We also found out that they have a large group cabin that sleeps 56 for 200 a night. I think lots of youth groups and family reunions use it. This opportunity is something to think about.
I am not pulling an Amelia here, but go vote. If you don't vote don't complain. I think there is a lot more to this vote than meets the eye. I hope that all of you continue to save money. I say this every time, but pay your tithing, invest in your retire plan, and save in a different source for your retirement. This means that you should save for the big things and have money that you don't touch. Over time it will build. Avoid debt for cars etc. People who do this will be ready for tough times and be ready to take advantage of opportunities that come along.
We were lucky enough to get tickets to the LSU & UGA game. They were pricey but it was worth it. We were able to sit with our neighbors. I really would like to see both teams do well. We were hoping that it would be a close game, but that Georgia would win. Georgia's early interception and an early establishment of a passing game really set LSU on its heels. I don't think it was as close as the score looked like. Both teams are in serious need of a better secondary defense. We hope that this bodes well for UGA against Florida (at least everyone around here hates Florida). We were also surprised how quickly so many fans left the stadium. Many left in the third quarter down two touchdowns. LSU even made a nice run late in the third and Georgia made some stupid mistakes down the stretch. We tried not to gloat. It does take awhile for the fans to get home. I think it took us about forty five minutes to walk to our car and then drive the five miles home. That doesn't count stopping to order a pizza and pick up milk at Albertsons. (Albertsons, it is still a little weird that Albertsons is one of the big grocery chains here.)
We are inviting some neighbors to the wards trunk or treat. The high priests are being against to bring chili to the event. I taught the lesson in Priesthood today. It was based on the talk "Ask in Faith" by Elder Bednar. I think it went well and I enjoyed reading Elder Bednar's talk in preparation for the talk. I noticed how consistently he begins his talks by inviting the spirit to assist both him and the audience to help them learn and/or reinforce the gospel lesson being taught. I think this is a great tactic. I think the key point is that we need to have meaningful prayer that involves asking and being prepared to act in accordance with the promptings of the spirit. Think of how Joseph Smith was prepared from the beginning to act, to join a church when given direction. Do we do this? It was certainly a good reminder for me. I am going to try to pray more purposefully this week. One goal, one week at a time.
We love you all and look forward to seeing those of you who live in Utah again soon.
Take care of each other.
Love Dad and Dana

Thanks Amelia

2008-10-21T09:54:00.000-07:00

Amelia set this up and I only playing along because I like the name she selected. I am already feeling forced to take better pictures

To Convince My Dad and Dana to Start Blogging

2008-10-21T07:26:00.000-07:00

I've set up a blog in your name.

It's so easy, you can just type like you are typing an email.

I've done the hard bit, now you just have to continue it!