July 2, 2006
How wonderful it is to get some sleep! I have been involved in some projects the last couple of weeks that have been pretty all-consuming – staying up late and getting up early in order to meet deadlines. As an example: from the time I woke up Monday morning at 4am to when I went to bed Wednesday night (actually Thursday morning) at 1:30am I only got 5 hours of sleep. That was the worst stretch, but others came pretty close. Becky and the kids were so good through the whole thing to let me work and to feed me when I would emerge from my cave. I’m happy to report that the main project, a 176 page full-color book called Journey of Faith: From Jerusalem to the Promised Land is done and the client said it was “sensational.” Let’s hope the general public feels the same and that they actually sell some books. It is a companion piece to the DVD film called Journey of Faith that has been out for almost a year now. Other projects continue and though I’m still quite busy, at least I’m usually getting a full night’s sleep. I even had time to finally mow the lawn yesterday as it has been two weeks for the front yard and three for the back since I last mowed. I also had time to finally fix our garage door opener. What a great convenience it is to not have to get out of the car to open or close the garage by hand. ☺ I’m sure Becky sometimes wishes her husband was more of a handyman.
Auriana, Isaac, and Natalie successfully completed their Bluegrass/Folk Music workshop, though because of our Pendleton family reunion couldn’t participate in the final performance. For that reunion we spent the 3rd weekend in June up at a condo/lodge in Eden, Utah. It had enough rooms for our entire family to fit, and had ping pong, pool, and air hockey tables as well as an outdoor pool and sand volleyball court. We spent one day at Pineview reservoir playing on the beach and enjoying 2 wave runners that we rented. Becky and I were in charge of the games one evening and we copied some of Brenda’s great ideas from the last Young reunion – distance Skittle spitting, licorice eating races, and the limbo. They were all a hit with my family. Isaac really enjoyed spending every second of that time with his twin cousins from Washington (Catherine’s boys Jacob and Daniel) since he’s usually forced to play with the girls because of having no other boy cousins his age. We will be going up to Washington for their baptisms at the end of this month. It was a nice reunion themed around the parables of Jesus.
It was sure nice to have Stuart and Teresa stop by for a quick stay. It has been great to see Teresa as often as we have lately and become acquainted with the mature woman she has become. We also enjoyed seeing the new and improved Stuart (are you getting tired of it yet, Stuart?). Actually it was nice to sit and talk and feel of his spirit and views on life and talk about our missions. I know I personally was inspired to be a better person, more diligent in my spiritual life, as a result of having him in our home. Thanks again to Mom and Dad and Boyd and Karinne for allowing Isaac to have the great experience he did in California.
We are very excited about the upcoming reunions and seeing all of you. I know I personally need the vacation. We’re grateful to Mom and Dad for planning both reunions. We’ll be going up a bit early to hang with Chad and Jenny and fit in as many golf games as possible – right Dad?!
The most exciting news at our house is that we finally talked Brenda into moving in with us. The kids are nearly dying from the anticipation. Having Brenda come has allowed us to do some remodeling that we have been considering. In order to give Brenda her own room and bathroom we are finishing the downstairs storage room to be a bedroom and converting the one downstairs bathroom into two. The ingenious solution came from Becky and now our plumber/electrician/builder neighbors are working to get it all done for Brenda and also in time for when you all come to stay at our place for the Pratt reunion. So if it still smells a bit like paint when you come, you’ll know why.
Baseball and T-ball ended this week and though Isaac and Natalie are both a little disappointed, I think the parents are glad that the four-nights-a-week schedule is done. They both played very well and each made great improvements over the season. Isaac, who usually played in the pitcher’s spot or at first base, got the “golden glove” award on his team. Now he and his friends want to play football. Let the injuries, I mean the games begin! It will be interesting to see if he continues to be interested in all sports or whether he’ll narrow it down to one or two as he gets older. Natalie also participated in a show choir camp last week and put on a great show with a big group of kids. She would do that until 3 or 4 in the afternoon and then go to her T-ball games at night. Becky and I were both impressed that she had the energy to do it all.
And lastly, if I didn’t mention “Tweeters” I would be remiss in my duty as reporter of news in the Pendleton family. Last week an injured bird made its way into one of our front window wells. We had a nest in our cherry tree and it had fallen, or more likely been knocked out by our neighbor’s cat, and the kids discovered the bird. I tried to put it back up in the tree but it just hopped back down and fluttered away into the bushes. I told the kids not to worry about it and let nature run its course. Later that day we found a dead bird on our sidewalk (thanks to the cat) and thought it was the same bird. I scooped it up with the shovel and gave it a proper burial in our garbage can before the kids could get any other ideas. To our surprise, the next day, the same bird was back in our window well – obviously it was a different one that had died. The kids asked if we could keep it and I said no. Then when they were gone with Becky somewhere I took it some bread and some water in a little tin lid. Softy, eh? Well it stayed in there for another day or two and the kids named it Tweeters and continued to feed it and change the water. Enoch and Miriam were completely enthralled by the experience. During a windy stormy night we covered the window well with boards so it could be protected from the rain. The next morning it was gone from the window well. Shortly after we realized it was gone, a bird that looked just like Tweeters landed on the windowsill of our big front window, as if to say thanks and goodbye, and then flew off. We’re not sure if it actually was Tweeters, but we like to think that Tweeters regained enough strength to return to its family and is happily tweeting in the treetops, rather than the alternative ending that involves a cat. So now life is back to normal, but we’ll always remember the summer when Tweeters lived in our window well.
