Remembering

As we passed Memorial Day this week, I found myself thinking of the people I have lost the last few years. I lost my secretary several years ago, who died young of lung cancer (she was a smoker), I lost my uncle, who died in his sixties of complications related to birth defects, I lost a dear friend who committed suicide after a lengthy battle with bipolar disorder, I lost a grandfather and a grandmother (one from each side) who were both in their nineties, a friend’s family (his wife and two children) died in a car accident, and I lost my mother.

For My Son On His 16th Birthday

Now that you are sixteen you will have the opportunity to go on dates. Hooray! Right? Well, yeah, but there are some things you need to know. Some provisos, caveats and quid pro quos, as they say.

5 Days (of Summer)

1.  On a sunny day in May, I’m moving office furniture and computers and artwork into my new office with my friends and partners.  This is without a doubt the best office I have ever had:  two minutes from home, in a beautiful building with hardwood floors, TVs in every room, a sub zero in the kitchen and a barbecue with a wedding-reception-worthy duckpond out back.  More importantly, I’m in this office with people I have always wanted to work with.  Now if we can just make enough money to keep up on the rent… 

Blaise

Baby Blaise

Please see my post on Blaise here.

A New Perspective On “The Chosen”

Please see my post on this here.

On Becoming a Teacher

 

My son Connor is 14 now (he’s a little younger in the photo above), and tomorrow he will be ordained to the office of a Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood.

The Story

Shannon asked me to post the story of how Robin and I became engaged. So here it is (Robin, you can have space for rebuttal).

This playlist has songs I remember from the time that Robin and I were engaged (click on “launch standalone player”):

Merry Christmas

In each of us there is at Christmastime something of our childhood. We all revel in the fun of Christmas-of giving and receiving tinseled presents, of singing favorite carols, of feasting on goodies we never miss at other seasons, of gathering together as family and friends, all having a wonderful time.  But there is something else, something better, and that is to sit together as families and read again the fascinating story of the birth of Jesus, who was born in Bethlehem of Judea.

Pres. Julie Beck

A lot of fantastic things were said in General Conference this weekend, and I want to highlight some of my favorites, but there has been a lot said about President Beck’s talk (the best from Kristine and Julie) and I want to add my thoughts. 

Honorable, Happy, Successful Marriage

The following is an outline of the material from the lesson of the same title which I gave in EQ last Sunday: