Light

I get to sit in on the Teachers' Quorum lessons at church. We have 10 or so Teachers in our ward, and they're a pretty good gang. Often, they will take the conversation and run with it, and it can be a chore to bring them back around to the topic of the lesson, but yesterday the instructor, Brother Call, captured their attention pretty well. He did so by being excited about the topic and telling them that the lesson was about a fascinating concept and that really engaged his mind and would be very interesting to the boys. His approach made it clear that he loved the subject he was about to present.

I remember when I was 17 or so and sitting in Priests' Quorum. Bishop Graves would open the Book of Mormon and be so enthusiastic about the stories it contained that I just couldn't help but get excited about the book myself. There is definitely something to be said for the way in which a lesson is approached. When the instructor loves and has personally invested in the subject the students are more likely to take it seriously and listen.

With those thoughts as a backdrop, Bro Call delved into the lesson and taught from the scriptures. Although the Teachers did have their off-topic moments, for the most part they were fully invested in the lesson--eager to look up scriptures and asking and answering intelligent questions. It was one of those good days where gospel knowledge expanded and testimonies grew.

The topic of the lesson was light. Many avenues were explored, but the predominant aspect on which I focused was light being of God and it is truth. The Doctrine & Covenants was utilized extensively--particularly sections 76 and 88. As the discussion carried on, my mind turned to the scripture about the light of the body being the eye. I looked it up subsequently and it can be found in both Matthew 6 and 3 Nephi 13. It clicked in my mind that a person's countenance is directly related to the light that is in their eyes. I recall so often sitting on the stand with Bishop Newman, and he would point out that someone's countenance seemed down or off from where it usually was. He would subsequently talk to them and learn of something amiss or that they needed help in a particular area. I loved being able to see how the Spirit can work in people's lives--either through someone else's help or through the person helping him/herself. And so often help from others can come because it shows in our countenances.

So, I loved putting those experiences together with the scriptures we discussed yesterday and recognizing that the light in our eyes is directly related to how much of God we have in our life and people can tell that by our countenance. The Spirit is a powerful teacher and a powerful guide. This brief post does no justice to the lesson or to the depth of the topic, but it was a small takeaway that was just an "aha" moment for me, and I appreciate those!

Making Amends

Well, I have to make things right. The other day Brenna looked at my blog and wondered why her site (really the site about our family) wasn't listed in the "Sites I Enjoy" section. I said, "As soon as you start regularly posting to it so there is something to see then I will add the link." Brenna took that as a personal challenge, and she has been a very diligent blogger for the past several days. So, I can now wholeheartedly recommend thefillerupfamily.blogspot.com as a blog about our family!

I expect I will once again become more selfish with my blog since Brenna is covering the family aspect, but we'll have to see how it goes. It's fun to get the different perspectives from Brenna's and Savannah's blogs. Thoroughly enjoyable!

A Perfect Day in England

NOTE: Conveniently, what I'm writing about took place a year ago today (May 23), but Brenna and I journaled it, and I have long wanted to get it online so we could have the pics and the narrative together. This was part of our trip to Europe for our 10th anniversary. We stayed in Esher, England with my sister and her family. Days like this just don't come along very often. As recorded in our journal:

23 May, 2007 (Wednesday)

Today was a perfect day. The sun was shining all day, and we did amazing things.

First, we slept in until about 8:30 or so. Then we ate cereal for breakfast and hung out trying to decide what to do. Kelsey and Stephanie [my niece and her friend--both on a break from college] were coming with us today, and we all agreed we wanted to go to Stonehenge, but other than that we weren't really sure. Some wanted to go to Bath, some wanted to go to Salisbury, while I wanted to drive into the west country. Unfortunately, we realized we probably wouldn't have enough time to do those things because of the additional driving from Stonehenge. So we decided to simply play it by ear once we got to Stonehenge.

(Stephanie, Kelsey and Jesse showing off our ride)

We left the McGregors around 11:00 and arrived at Stonehenge around noon. It's an incredible sight to be driving along the road and come over a rise and see these stones in the distance.

(Stonehenge from a distance)

They don't look massive at first glance, but as you get nearer you see how large they truly are. We parked and got into the sight using Bryon's English Heritage membership card. We also got audio guides, which provided a very useful and informative accompaniment to the visit. The largest stone weighs 45 tons, and there is no consensus on how they were placed in their locations. However, it is believed that the henge was begun around 3500 BC with the large stones put in place some time between 3000 and 2500 BC. Pretty remarkable.

(Stonehenge up close. I know it's over used, but this really was awe-inspiring!)

There is something amazing about standing in proximity to those stones and absorbing the magnitude of the effort to place them where they are and for the intelligence and knowledge behind their placement. There was clearly knowledge of astronomy and the workings of earth's energy fields.

We all started chatting with the English Heritage employees who were on site, and we learned so much. They talked about the history of the site and the conservation of the stones. They showed us carvings of a dagger and an axe in the stones as well as where birds were nesting. They showed us where energy fields crossed (by using copper rods),
and we could just tell how much they loved their jobs and loved the history of the site.

(Kelsey & Brenna checking out the energy fields)

The back of the Stonehenge pamphlet mentioned a Wardour Castle that is within 20 miles of Stonehenge. We asked one of the guides about that, and she wrote down directions on how to get there for us. She was so helpful. It was great!

So we left Stonehenge and headed on a drive through the English countryside.

(Brenna enjoying some of that countryside)

(Jesse joining Brenna to enjoy the countryside)

The directions she had provided were impeccable. They led us directly to the castle, but not before we drove through the most sumptuous countryside. We saw sheep, cows, lakes, rivers, rolling hills, flowering trees, horses, thatched roof cottages, small towns, one lane roads, arches over the road and so many beautiful scenes. I absolutely loved the drive--it was remarkable!

(This arch was just a few miles before Tisbury on our way to Wardour. We turned onto this little road and saw the arch and accompanying wall in front of us and got the feeling we were about to enter some private gardens. The views on the other side and the tranquility of the tranquility of the scene were unforgettable.)

Wardour Castle itself was also an amazing site. It is a castle in ruins, but we were able to walk around inside, climb the steps to the upper tower and get a feel for what the castle was like. The audio guide was extremely helpful. Interestingly, there was a wedding at the castle while we were there. I asked the guides what you had to do to have a wedding there, and the answer was simply that you had to "pay loads of money!" Too funny! It was fantastic visiting the castle, and we took many, many photos.

(Brenna improving the Wardour scenery)

(Picnic @ Wardour--Jesse, Stephanie, Kelsey)

(Jesse in Wardour's main room/dining hall)

(Wardour's missing roof--with a beautiful sky)

We then got back in the car to head home. We drove through the town of Tisbury and stopped on High Street to get Magnum Ice Cream bars. Kelsey and Stephanie hadn't had them before, and they were well impressed.

(Jesse & Brenna enjoying Magnum bars)

We also stopped at the local church and wandered among the gravestones and admired the beauty of the building. Most of the gravestones were from the 1800s. The town was simply charming and gave a beautiful feeling to our day.

(The town of Tisbury in sepia)

(More sepia - Tisbury's church)

As we drove out of town we saw some men throwing a ball in a field. We slowed down to look and realized they were practicing cricket. Some were bowling the ball while others were batting. One of them turned and saw us slowing down so he motioned us to come play . . . and we did! I pulled in and told them we were Americans and didn't understand the game. They were only too happy to explain some of the fundamentals, and they invited me out onto the pitch to practice with them. It was so fun! I got to bowl a few times and catch the ball and get a few of the batters "out."

(Jesse practicing his bowling skills)

I thoroughly enjoyed being out there with them and asking questions about the sport, which they readily answered. There are 11 people a side with one bowler, one "catcher" (I can't remember the proper name) and nine in the field. The batting team sends two batters up at a time. When one gets out he is done for the innings and a teammate joins the other batter. You can get out by hitting a ball that is caught, by not making it to the far wicket on a live ball before the fielding team hits your wicket with the ball or by allowing the bowler to hit the wickets you are protecting. Pretty cool! Once ten of the batting team's players get out the innings is over.

(Jesse on the cricket pitch!)

After about 1/2 hour I thanked them, and we continued our journey. 1 1/2 hours later we were back at the Macs. What a wonderful day! I loved spending it with Brenna and enjoying her company. Our marriage is a blessing.

No More Oxygen

Quick update on Eliza is that we took her off the oxygen on Thursday. We put it back on her at night, and that has been going very well. She has her next Dr appointment tomorrow, and hopefully at that point we will be able to remove the oxygen entirely! She's been doing very well--the reflux problems seem to be decreasing, and she doesn't have problems nearly as frequently with overall breathing consistency. She's getting stronger!

Last night we had her on her tummy, and she was lifting her head up and wiggling around so that her body was moving to new places on her blanket. The kids got excited thinking she would be crawling soon, so we had to temper that enthusiasm, but it is so encouraging to see her taking these strides! Had everything gone according to schedule, she would be about two weeks old right now. Instead, she celebrated her three month mark on Sunday!

A Few Musings

Sitting here watching the Lakers beat up on the Jazz so I thought I'd record a few thoughts:

- I haven't played basketball or soccer for a couple of weeks now. I've either sprained or aggravated a previous sprain on my left ankle three times in the last two months or so--twice playing hoops and once playing soccer. It's really annoying, but I guess it's just another sign that I'm getting older. I never used to have problems with my ankles, but now it seems like it's just a routine occurrence--go play ball and hurt the ankle. So, I decided to take a few weeks off to give the ankle time to heal completely. It's not there yet, but it is feeling far better than it did the last two times I went back to play after injuring it. I'm hoping that with another week it will feel completely normal. We shall see. It takes some of the fun out of the game when in the back of your head you're always concerned about little injuries.

- I have really enjoyed the NBA playoffs this year. My favorite part has been watching Chris Paul of the Hornets. I hadn't really seen him play before this, and I am thoroughly impressed with how complete his game is. And, he comes with the added bonus of playing with a playground abandon. I have loved watching him clown the Spurs on his drives to the hoop. It's easy to see how playing with a guy like that would just be a blast!

- Sobering happenings in Myanmar and China. Thinking of the tsunami a few years ago and Katrina closer to home as well as wars and everything else makes me feel incredibly insulated and spoiled here at home. I mean, look at my two previous items--moaning about minor ankle injuries and commenting on a frivolous game. I guess that's the luxury we have, but it doesn't make the events in other parts of the world any less real for those who are impacted by them. On that note, a shout out to Brenna's cousin, Josh Brazier, and his kaiizen.org efforts. Amazing and inspirational guy. Also a shout out to BYU's Center for Economic Self Reliance (http://marriottschool.byu.edu/selfreliance/). I have to get more involved in that.

- This weekend our stake is doing Play in a Day for the youth. Brenna and I took turns spending time at the church tonight helping out with getting the youth organized. We had more than 30 youth there--amazing! I feel very fortunate to be able to continue to work with the youth. I can't think of anything I would rather do in the church. I spent time with the YM who are working on the set, and it's just fun to interact with them and be reminded of the things that are important to teenagers. What a great time of life! Brenna loved being able to spend time with them as well. It's a breath of fresh air to parents with grade school age children!

- Tomorrow is our 11th anniversary. We're so romantic that we will spend it helping with the Play in a Day and watching the performances in the evening. We figure we did it right last year with our trip to England and Belgium, so a low key anniversary this year is acceptable.

I guess that's enough for now. Nice just to sit down and let my thoughts flow out of my head and onto the screen.

Big Weekend

This is one of those weekends we will always remember at our house. On Saturday Savannah was baptized and Eliza was blessed. What a great day! Little Eliza has come so far so fast that it all is just a bit incredible to think that we're doing regular baby things with her now. And Savannah was so pleased to be able to share her amazing day with her little sister.

The three girls looking good!

This picture of Eliza reminds me a lot of Madison when she was getting blessed. It's fun to be able to look back and have those memories. After having seen Savannah and Madison develop their personalities I am very eager to see what Eliza will be like. My guess is she will have a fighting spirit but be very insightful as to others emotions and needs. Time will tell. I just love being a dad and seeing these wonderful people become who they are.

The oldest and the youngest. It's very enjoyable to see how much the older children love holding Eliza and how cautious they are with her. She does lend a certain air of calm at times!

The whole gang! What a beautiful day, and what fun we had! Thanks to our family who traveled to be with us, and thanks to our wonderful friends who participated. I really felt the strength of the great men with whom I stood in those two circles. I can't think of another feeling to compare it with, but I won't forget it.