Just a "Note" (Lalala..)

Dear Jason Mraz,

We were first introduced through The Remedy, but I didn’t commit to your music until You and I Both, which is still on my Favorites list right next to Emaline by Ben Folds Five. I have a thing for piggy bank-toting geeks (ask my husband).

Last year, about this time, I was pregnant with my second child. She was diagnosed with Trisomy 18, a genetic rarity and fatal defect. She had a 10% chance to survive to term, and even then these children’s median lifespan is 5–15 days. Because it was commonplace for a child with this defect to die in utero, my doctor had me visit weekly to confirm a fetal heartbeat. We couldn’t rely on kicks or movement because my daughter was so small. With my son Caleb I felt his first movement at 14 weeks gestation, he was so strong. With my daughter Emma I didn’t feel a kick until 19 weeks, it was feeble. It would be another month until my husband could place his hand on my abdomen to feel her stirrings.

My doctor’s office was in Hopedale, on Hope Street. The satire was not lost on me.

After each appointment I felt exhausted. Sometimes I may have been

sad,

just fine

or anxious,

but I was always exhausted. I’d resort to listening to the radio to relieve my mind. Luckily for me a song of yours was in season. I could always find a station playing it on my trudge home. It rejuvenated my spirits and retuned my situation. Thank you.

Yours,

Angela

PS It is summertime again, ‘tis the season. The stations here have been playing your song regularly since April.

What's a letter you'd never send?

Imitation

Like Graduate Student, Like Son

Wednesday, Michael will be turning in his final project. This past month has taken its toll on all of us. Mid-week can't get here soon enough!

B: Despite Woodruff

It’s true what they say. It’s all about location, location, location. Just look at the Old Testament for PAH-lenty of examples.
I hadn’t really considered the weight the decision of residence carried until I was engaged and looking for an apartment. Flagstaff, despite what you have heard or may think, is a very desirable place to live. This explains the cost of living. To find an affordable apartment with some elbow room that is close to campus but not on campus is nearly impossible. You’d need four or five roommates to make rent. And since the days of polygamy in our church are dead, the likelihood of a newly-wed couple, both full-time students, finding an affordable apartment is slim.
We found our apartment through sheer providence. It was small, but affordable. A ten-minute walk to central campus. It was owned by an attentive member of the Church. We lived in that apartment for two years. Our neighbors became our friends, as often good neighbors do. Our ward provided ways for us to serve that provided growth and would later prove to be preparation for other endeavors.
Yes, where you reside is of extreme importance. Sometimes like Abraham we are told “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house” and unto a land he will show us, so we can be blessed in ways beyond our small scope.

The summer before Mike’s graduation, during his last internship, we started considering our next move. We toyed with the idea of eastward expansion, considering possibly Virginia at the farthest. That changed during an interview for General Dynamics when Mike was informed about their Boston branch. Mike had settled on General Dynamics as an employer but we were unsure where we wanted to be:

Arizona or Massachusetts?

Michael’s brother was working for GD in Scottsdale. We’d have family close by, we’d most likely live in Mesa close to a LDS temple, housing would be cheap. On the other hand, Boston would be an adventure and, with further meditation on the subject, harder. What to do. What to do.
After prayer, fasting, compiling lists, inspection of the housing market, reviewing our patriarchal blessings, and discussing our family’s needs, assessing our long-term objectives and after more prayer and a lot of listening… we were told…
it was our decision. Both locations were good choices.
We arrived at the resolution that for us and our family, it would be the better choice to move to Massachusetts.
So we did. Despite section *84 and Elder Wilford Woodruff. ;)
We spent four months in an apartment before putting an offer in on a house. Not our current house, mind you.
Mike had scouted out a home on busy 109 and between his work schedule/commute and me attending to a four month-old Caleb, I had to trust his taste because I wasn’t able to go with him to view a single house. We had prayed about the house and the only way I can describe the resolution was “Meh.” So we submitted an offer, noncommittally. When his schedule and our baby carrier was aligned just right, I was able to tag-along to two viewings with Mike. First was a tatty house nestled at an end of a lane, a dead end on an overlooked road. I walked inside and I remember liking the flow of each room and just feeling, however cliché, peaceful.
Next, we were shown the house we’d made an offer on.
The floor plan left me feeling disarrayed. There was duck, I kid you not, and elk wallpaper in the kitchen. Sure, it was neighboring the town library, had a decent back yard, and was well-kept comparatively, but it lacked. I told Mike I liked the other house, the first one I had ever viewed. He agreed. Luckily our offer for the woodland creature-shellacked house was rejected. We’d put an offer in on our future home and the seller would tell us it wasn’t enough. Our realtor encouraged us to resubmit another offer before the open house that evening. It was Sunday, and we decided the offer could wait until Monday. And it did. And it was accepted. Eventually.
Then the branch was created.
Since then, buying and residing in the weathered house has been proven to be a trialing a rewarding an experience. The additional half bath and third bedroom that we “needed”, that were a requisite in our house hunt, are rarely used. Our abode expectations and aesthetics shaped by our western-upbringing have been redefined. The house is functional and besides cosmetic alterations there is no need for change. It is small and essential. Only real qualm is in regards to parking. We live at the end of a road after all. A narrow road.
This summer we planned for our house to be painted. The time had come. Rather than scheduling a date to have the painters come, we signed up for them to come at their convenience (reducing the price). This past week a canceled job created an opening for our shabby house.

Yowzers! Look at that yellow! You only live in Massachusetts once, I say. May as well take advantage of the colonial-style structure and its green surroundings. Could you image that shade on a stucco house offset to salmon-colored gravel? No thank you.


*Thanks to Bro. Liesek for informing us rigth before me moved about D&C 84: 114 and the words of Elder Wilford Woodruff !
Speaking directly to the youth in attendance, Elder Woodruff declared: “‘Now, my young friends, I wish you to remember these scenes you are witnessing during the visit of President Young and his brethren. Yea, my young friends, treasure up the teachings and sayings of these prophets and apostles as precious treasure while they are living men, and do not wait until they are dead. A few days and President Young and his brethren, the prophets and apostles and Brothers Benson and Maughan, will be in the spirit world. You should never forget this visitation. You are to become men and women, fathers and mothers; yea, the day will come, after your fathers, and these prophets and apostles are dead, you will have the privilege of going into the towers of a glorious Temple built unto the name of the Most High (pointing in the direction of the bench), east of us upon the Logan bench; and while you stand in the towers of the Temple and your eyes survey this glorious valley filled with cities and villages, occupied by tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints, you will then call to mind this visitation of President Young and his company. You will say: That was in the days when Presidents Benson and Maughan presided over us; that was before New York was destroyed by an earthquake; it was before Boston was swept into the sea, by the sea heaving itself beyond its bounds; it was before Albany was destroyed by fire; yea, at that time you will remember the scenes of this day. Treasure them up and forget them not.’ President Young followed and said: ‘What Brother Woodruff has said is revelation and will be fulfilled.’” (In Lundwall, Temples of the Most High, pp. 97–98.)

(YIKES.)