As alluded to last time, Shannon and I joined some other family members in September for a trip to the English village of Combe Martin, where my great-grandfather Richard Norman was born in 1850. He emigrated as a young man to Utah, and now lies interred in the city cemetery within walking distance of my current home.
Continue reading “Epic United Kingdom Trip”Driving on the Other Side
When you talk to the non-British about driving in the United Kingdom, the first comment is always about driving on the “wrong” side of the road. After spending a week and a half driving across England and Scotland, I can assert that left-side driving was the easy part.
How to Be a Skinny Person
According to various formulas developed between 53 and 35 years ago, I’m right in my ideal weight zone. Some people have even called me “athletic-looking”, which I think is a sycophantic way of saying “skinny”. Therefore, I thought I’d kindly share with you all how I manage it.
Sahm Dai Gweilo
Sahm Dai Gweilo — Google says the Cantonese word for three is Sahm. Depending on the context Dai might mean family generations. Gweilo translates as western men so I’m hoping this is how you’d represent my three generations of men — in China.
Continue reading “Sahm Dai Gweilo”
The Last Autumn Leaf
November 8th seemed impossibly far away when Gerrit opened his mission call back in June and learned of his assignment and reporting date. As he’s watched his friends get their calls after his, but leave before him, he’s said that he feels like the last autumn leaf clinging to the tree. But the day has finally come.
Favorite Family Funnies
One of the joys of parenthood is the surprising and often unintentionally funny things your kids say. I started keeping track of some of these, and now that my children are old enough to be funny on purpose, I thought I’d share some bits of dialog I’ve collected from their earlier years.
Two weeks of tortillas and trenches
This summer I had the amazing opportunity to go on a humanitarian trip to Mexico through an organization called HEFY (Humanitarian Experience for Youth). My dad gave me the impossible task of summarizing the two most incredible weeks of my life and not have it take three hours to read. So I am going to try my best to keep it relatively short, and pick some highlights from my trip journal.
Remembrances of My Step Dad
Dwight Dean Peden, May 3, 1935 – February 8, 2017
The Chimpanzee
In some personality categorization schemes, people are compared to animals: The “drivers” are lions, the “analyticals” are giraffes, and so on. Dean cheerfully placed himself in the “expressive” category — the chimpanzees. My earliest memories of Dean, from when he showed up in my “tween” years, are of wild piggyback rides, rattling dentures, bird calls and angry squirrel impressions. He was abundantly affectionate to mom, telling her she was beautiful, playfully kissing her, and complimenting her profusely on dinner (even on the nights when he did the cooking). He was always ready with a joke.
Continue reading “Remembrances of My Step Dad”Nativity
On Saturday our family honored our annual tradition of hanging out on a farm in Alpine, Utah in the freezing cold. It isn’t a secret snowboarding hill where horses pull you to the top (though that would be cool). Rather, it is the site of an annual living nativity started by a family in our ward.
Millennium Falcon
We’ve just had the most vexing day — very vexing indeed.
No, I haven’t just woken up from a coma or sustained a head injury causing me to speak like a 19th century heroine. I have no desire to give you affright, chastise ne’er do wells for being beef-witted blackguards, drink from a stoup, or give a concert on my pianoforte. But, as is our wont to make you ware of our sundry and varied exploits, I will share our most VEXing experience.