Out with a bang

Or at least with a lot of smoke. Last Sunday we had much to post about, but circumstances beyond anyone's control prevented our doing so. It went like this. 

Lia, utterly exhausted from the week just ending, still scraped together enough energy to make the family a Sunday beef stew. Simmering the dutch oven on the stovetop for 5-7 minutes and then transferring to the oven for an hour and forty-five minutes being the only steps left, Justin said he'd take over and then sent Lia off to bed for a nap. He then intended to take all the kids to Grandma's house so the house would be quiet. An hour later, Lia was roused from a deep sleep by the smell of smoke. She opened the bedroom door to find a wall of smoke behind it. Coughing her way down the stairs, her thoughts raced through what element of her stew recipe had gone awry, and what on earth the family could eat for dinner with a very, very burnt stew. She rounded the smoke-filled house into the kitchen to discover the smoke originating from the stove, where her two rubber oven mitts were smoldering. She quickly saw that someone had both left the burner on and thrown two oven mitts smack dab in the middle of it, where they had been cooking for a good 60 minutes. As soon as she pulled them both off the burner, they burst into flames in her hands. Luckily trained in the art of pyrotechnics, Lia expertly threw them into the sink where she could douse the flames rather than on the floor, outside, or in the trashcan (all places that dashed through her mind) where the conflagration may have spread. 

After borrowing seven fans from neighbors and relatives and opening all the windows to a very hot August day, the smoke cleared and the family was able to enjoy their stew, though smelling it is half the enjoyment, and no one could do that.

Lia is lucky to have wonderful ministering sisters always, often some who take the Holy Spirit as their constant companion. She forgets she should take this seriously. She forgot last week, when said ministering sister asked if there was anything Lia could have her do for her on Monday. "No," answered Lia, excited not to have anything for her ministering sister to do for once. "I'm just going to hear Justin deliver his University Conference address and Julia is babysitting, so we're set." As it turned out, after the smoke-out, they were not set, and so Lia texted back Sunday evening. "About that Monday offer....." Monday morning was spent scrubbing down surfaces with a vinegar/dishsoap/boiling water solution; emptying the coat closet of its contents; washing and airing all the linens on the main floor; purchasing and dispatching several forms of odor remover (Abdiel was offended when Lia mentioned this FunkAway said it was also good for athletes); sprinkling and then vacuuming large quantities of baking soda; and generally turning the house upside down in an effort to rid it of the smoke smell. Miriam was of course very helpful during all of this, so it was good that both ministering sisters showed up to be even more helpful.

All this kerfuffle was probably an effort to distract from Justin's University Conference address, which was masterful. Link forthcoming. Big thanks to Julia for facilitating Lia's attending!

Now moving backwards in time, Saturday evening Julia, Abdiel, and Gwyn accompanied Justin to watch the Cougars pound Portland State 69-0 in football. Brownie points to readers who can identify the eye of one apostle's wife sitting next to Julia and the face of another behind her. 

Saturday morning Lia fell asleep in her temple session. Not an endowment session, either; an initiatory session. Justin consequently put her back to bed when they got home and whisked this little fireball down to the basement to try to be quiet.

Part of Lia's fatigue may have been incident to ending a week that started with a smoke-out with a little babysitting gig of the biggest whirlwind in the ward. Gabriel actually did most of the whirlwind entertaining while Lia held the 9 month old. Luckily Justin had no meetings after 11 am and so was inspired to come work at home, so he could do some damage control when Miriam awoke from her nap to find another baby in the house. He also picked up Gwyn and Elinor and hung around while Lia took Gwyn to violin. What a hero!
 

So proud of BYU students bucking trends by tying the knot! These are BYU-Hawaii students, one of whom grew up in our ward, and whose mother was our girls' FaVoRiTe young women leader.

Speaking of leaders, Justin gave a series of lectures at Education Week last week entitled "Recovering George Washington's Constitution." They were, of course, superb. Julia attended on Tuesday; Lia, Abdiel, and Katharine on Wednesday; Lia on Thursday. Packing all the people and accoutrements--including strollers, diaper bags, lunches for four, and protection from the sun for an hour on campus--was a bit intense. On Wednesday it included a few items to go home with a random Education Week participant who would be headed to Berlin within the month; on Friday it would include Gwyn and her violin since her lessons are now in Provo at 2:15. With another week of teaching Abdiel Latin, Logic, and Grammar as well as now four kids' instrument practices, Lia just couldn't make that Friday lecture.

Or so she thought. Hoping to hide, Miriam-like, under her blankets, Lia for some reason felt compelled to go to this Friday lecture. She did some quick calculations and figured she could probably pick the girls up from school (Katharine can't do that noon pick-up on Fridays), drop them at home, arrive just a little late to Justin's 12:30 lecture, hurry out without stopping to speak to anyone, pick Gwyn, violin, and Miriam up, and make it back to Provo for Gwyn's first lesson with her new teacher. 

So off to the races she went. She snuck into the back about fifteen minutes late. While listening to an account of George Washington's changing views on slavery and what he hoped for the country in his waning years of life, she also heard a few pings on her phone. They were from an old Berlin Institute student via Facebook messenger. Since that usually happened when someone ran into a German-missionary daughter, she turned her phone to silent and thought she'd check it later. Another vibration. Turns out said Berlin student was in the same Education Week session. "I am at your husband's Education Week lecture! I bet you are here, too, somewhere!" the messages said.

Long story short, after much conversation, it came out that Saria had been working all over the world for Doctors Without Borders doing humanitarian work with women and children. She had moved to Utah in an effort to end her single status, but her great hope was to do something with the new School of Medicine at BYU. "Oh," noted Lia, "Justin can maybe help you with that," at least when one attends a weekly meeting incident to that cause, it seems he could. Saria had just happened to tuck a resume into her bag that morning, so the two headed over to Fort Clyde, the residence of the Academic Vice President's team while the ASB gets razed and rebuilt, for a short meeting introducing Saria to Justin.

Hopefully Saria will indeed provide future aid to the School of Medicine, because "hurry out without stopping to speak to anyone" certainly didn't happen.

Gwyn's last lesson with her former teacher. 

Abdiel's football has consumed our evenings and our Saturdays. His team is looking better and better. Yesterday's game featured Abdiel scoring both of his team's touchdowns, one on a wild I'm-about-to-go-down pitch from the quarterback that A.B. ran in for a touchdown. The other was after a 30 yard run taken down at the 2 yard line, followed by Abdiel punching it in. Go A.B.! Katharine held down the fort cleaning and making chocolate chip muffins for lunch at home.

Who took more than ten steps across the library to get herself a book this week? This girl!

President's Council, either saying goodbye to the ASB or hello to their temporary quarters at the Hinckley.