Courage

"Courage is that quality of mind which meets danger or opposition with calmness and firmness which enables a man to face difficulties that lie in his pathway to righteous achievement...Courage implies facing difficulties and overcoming them."
-David O. McKay

We had a little experience last night that has had me thinking about this quote for the past 12 hours. Last night was one of those nights where almost everyone has some where different to be at almost the same time. Spencer and Steven had scouts at 6:00. Spencer at the scout master's house. Steven at the church. Ryan had a soccer game at 6:30 and Greg was the designated driver and parent in attendance. Erica and I had Young Women at 7:00 at the church. As we currently don't have an 11-year-old Scout leader, Joseph was the only one not rushing out the door. Our schedules meant that he would be home by himself for an hour or so, until Greg and Ryan got home form the game. No big deal, he stays home all the time.

About 7:50 I had a call from home on my cell phone. I hate it when the girls (or the leaders) use their phones during YW and since Greg should have been home long before that, I didn't feel like taking the call and answering a profound question like, "Can we have some ice cream?" Unexpected calls from home always worry me, just a little, so I changed my mind and stepped out into the hall to return it.

The phone rang and was answered by someone. All I could her was yelling or hysterics over an extremely terrible connection. I couldn't even tell who it was. Finally I could make out that it was Joseph. He sounded hysterical and said something about a man and the back door and then the line went dead. My heart about stopped and fell out on the floor. My first thought was , "Where is Greg? He should be home by now." I called his phone. The game had started late, but he was almost to the bottom of our hill and was on his way to take Ryans friend, Jaron, home. I told him about Joseph's call and he agreed to book it home as fast as he could. I, being health and gasoline conscious, had of course walked to church and it would take me a good 10 minutes to get back home. Greg would definitely beat me. I called home, but no one answered. I decided to keep calling until either Joseph or Greg picked up.

Part way through my 4th call, I turned around to see Joseph sobbing and running barefoot down the church hallway. I gave him a huge hug and sat on the couch, waiting for him to calm down and tell me what happened-oh, and called Greg to tell him that Joseph wasn't home so he wouldn't freak out when he got there.

Turns out that the doorbell had rung and Joseph had answered it. A tall creepy-looking man with short, reddish blond hair asked to speak to his parents. Joseph said they weren't able to come to the door then and to come back later. Then the man looked at him very strangely and told him to go ask his parents why the couldn't come to the door. That was enough on the creep-o-meter for Joseph. He shut the door and locked it, grabbed the phone, and ran out the back door; calling me on the way. The connection was terrible because he was rapidly running through the backyard behind our house and away from the phone base. It went dead when he got out of range.

Greg got home and found no one. He made Ryan and Jaron stay in the car with the doors locked, just in case. He searched the house but found no one there and nothing out of place (except the total destruction in the basement from Ryan and Jaron playing all afternoon). He closed and locked the house and left to take Jaron home. On the way, he passed a man meeting Joseph's description at the door of our neighbor, Nicole, down the street. She's our Primary president, so Greg went and confronted him at her door. Greg said he did look kind of creepy and didn't seem at all concerned that he had terrified our son. Nicole called later to say that she had been kind of creeped out, too. The guy was going door-to-door selling essential oils. She had been trying to close the door and go get her kids to bed, but he wouldn't let her. I don't know where he went after that, but Greg came down to church to pick up Joseph and Steven and they saw him walking across the street on their way home. We haven't seen him since.

So, it was a totally freaky experience, but has had me thinking about courage. Courage really isn't the "laugh-in-the-face-of-danger" bravado that we sometimes imagine. It really is keeping a cool head and doing what needs to be done in the face of some obstacle or difficulty. In Joseph's case, it happened to be intense personal danger-or at least the perception of it. (I really want to believe that it was just a really bad case of miscommunication and misunderstanding, but I don't know that.) Sometimes courage is standing up to do what's right, even if it means doing so all by yourself in the face of laughter or ridicule. No one "laughs in the face of danger" at those times, but that's when the biggest character strides forward are taken and the deepest depths of your strength and faith are tested. I'm hoping that this particular instance gives Joseph the knowledge that he can remember the right things to do and then do them even when the doing seems impossible, whatever the circumstance. Because, last night, my hero was a terrified young man who faced a very huge difficulty and overcame it.

Happy Labor Day

This hasn't been the funnest of holidays for Greg. It didn't start out so bad. He got take Joseph to soccer practice, cut down branches from our neighbors tree that are hitting the side and roof of our house, and play Monopoly with the boys. It was even cool enough out to snow on the tops of the mountains, on September 1st, no less! Seeing as he had the day off, Greg decided to figure out the problem with our Norton Anti-Virus. It quit working on the laptop a couple of weeks ago. Greg uninstalled the program but couldn't get it to reinstall. You can't call Norton for help (unless you want to pay $60), only communicate through online chat. Things even went pretty well with that at first. Greg could play Monopoly with the boys while the Norton guy tried to figure the problem. The non-fun began when Mr. Norton (I think at that time it was a person named Vijay) told Greg the laptop had to have a hard-wired connection to the internet, not wireless. That ended Greg's Monopoly game as the internet connection was upstairs and the game was happening downstairs. He's now spent the better part of the day in the computer room, spoken with 6 different analysts (three of them elevated case managers), been disconnected three times and has now started over for the 4th time. The whole process started at 12:45 this afternoon. It's now 10:05. Steven and Ryan were in here earlier crossing all the appendages they had, but it didn't work. We had Family Home Evening in the computer room with the then current analyst beeping in occasionally and remotely operating the computer, which is kind of weird to watch. The computer has now been restarted more times than he cares to think about. Needless to say, Greg is a teeny little bit frustrated. He thinks he's being cursed because he didn't shave today. I appreciate all his efforts. To his credit, the computer has not flown through a window, the internet cable is still attached to the wall, his face is still flesh colored, there are no bulging veins in or around his face, and he can make a joke and still smile (at least on the outside). Our current analyst is Sujeesh. He's hung in there so far , this fourth time around, and not disconnected Greg. Hopefully this will be resolved soon. If not, we'll disconnect ourselves from this whole process and start again another day. I bet Greg shaves tomorrow.

Where Did We Go Wrong

Today was the season opener for BYU football. They played against Northern Iowa and won 41-17. (Yeah!). It was a fun game. Greg got 2 season tickets for his birthday. There are 6 home games, which worked out great. Each of the kids and I could go to a game with Greg and enjoy the BYU football experience. Perfect plan. So, what went wrong? This week was Ryans' turn to go to the game. At 3:30 I called him upstairs to get ready. He decided he didn't want to go. Steven didn't want to go. Spencer didn't want to go. Erica didn't want to go. Joseph was playing at a friends' house. I have a terrible cold and wanted to stay home, but who in their right mind passes up a chance to go to a football game?! I went and had a great time. How do Greg and I, both BYU grads who never missed a home game the whole time we were students, have children who have grown up to not want to watch BYU football? I thought is was passed along in the genome somehow! Ok, we haven't exactly lived in areas where BYU football was played-either in person or on TV. Neither are we the pay-hundreds-of-dollars-to fly-across-the-country-to-see-BYU-play type of people. But, we did watch it when we could and even traveled from CA to AZ to see them play against ASU once. I guess it's not enough. So, let us be a warning to all of you out there. Teach, teach, teach your children about the really important things in life and don't forget about BYU football. No, Keith, ASU doesn't even come close to being as important. Cosmo, Cosmo, Cosmo not Sparky, Sparky, Sparky! Next week is an away game. We have soccer and viola during the first quarter, but the kids will have a new kind of homework when we get home. Lucky for them, it involves the TV.

Bela

Today is a big day for my cousin, Avery, and her family. Avery had a baby girl, Bela, last February. She was born with both Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome and Turner Syndrome. In order to survive, Bela has to have a series of reconstructive surgeries on her heart. She had her first within a few days of being born. Today is the second. I know that most everyone who reads this won't know who she is; but if you have a minute I know they would appreciate any prayers for Bela, her family, and the doctors.

Breakfast

It is University Conference Week at BYU. It hasn't changed my life all that much except that they have fed me breakfast twice and I wish we could go for a third. I never eat this good (as in taste, not good-for-you) on my own. Yesterday was a breakfast for new employees and their spouses. We got to meet the administration and had such novelties as banana bread French toast and shirred eggs (looked like poached eggs to me) along with fried potatoes and fruit. Today was breakfast for all faculty and staff and their spouses. There are a TON of people who work there. I never really thought about it before. We had scrambled eggs, waffles, sausage, and granola with yogurt. Best part of both days? There are a couple of bests. First, Greg and I had a "date morning" two days in a row. It's kind of fun to get all dressed up and go out, just the two of us, first thing in the morning. It's a very nice start to the day and I could get really used to it. Second, we had yummy food and I didn't have to cook or do dishes. Another side benefit was that the breakfasts were at 8:00, so Joseph, Steven, and Ryan got themselves to school. I like to walk to and from school with them (both for the exercise and I'm a bit paranoid that some psychopath will get them), but it's very freeing to know they are now familiar enough with the walk to go themselves if they need to. The conference goes for the rest of the week, but my morning dates are over for another year. Reality is that if I have extra time in the morning, and am not woken by offspring, I'll sleep in rather than get dressed up and out the door. Oh well, another reason to look forward to the start of school.

Tidbits

I've wanted to write something all day. I don't have anything really insightful and thought I'd just put down a couple of random thoughts.

1) The Scoutmaster in our ward has seemed so familiar to me ever since we moved in. I haven't been able to place him, though. I found out this week that he was a graduate student and taught in the Exercise Science department when I was a student here back in the last century. I still couldn't totally place him until tonight. I finally remembered that he taught my PE 363 class (Physiology of Activity or something like that). I do remember a couple of things- like figuring out body mass index and some new ways, besides those dreaded calipers, to determine body fat. The thing I remember most was that I had that class in the Fall and the final for that class was the last final on the last day of finals and he would not let us take it early. I think the 30 people in my class were the last souls on campus that semester. It obviously didn't kill me, but I do remember being a little perturbed back then. He seems like a nice enough guy and I really like his wife and daughter, so all's forgiven.

2) I passed the 500,000 step mark in our Wellness Fitness Challenge today. Woohoo! Greg is about the same as I am and will hit that mark tomorrow sometime. The challenge ends this week. At this rate, we'll end up with a solid silver medal, which is way better than the bronze we were hoping for. There are several people that have nearly 2,000,000 steps, but I think that they are crazy. They must do nothing but walk all day. Maybe they teach PE, or read meters, or walk to work from Salt Lake everyday. My hat goes off to them. I don't know if all the walking has really made a difference for me fitness-wise, but I did walk home from a fireside at church tonight and was barely winded even after walking uphill the whole way. Hope that means my endurance is up.

That's it for tonight. I should really be asleep instead of on the computer, so that's where I'm headed. Sweet dreams.

Some Boxes Are Important

Ok, I had fun at the shopping trip the other day and made a comment about thinking outside my box (see previous post). I'm going to have to pay attention to at least some of the boxes in my life, though-like the ones on the calendar. I picked up those tickets for the Women's Expo with the intent to take Erica for a Girl's Day Out. I still think it would be a blast to go with her, but I tried writing it on the calendar and met with a few conflicts. None of them are bad conflicts, they just made the calendar first with prior approval. Greg will be in AZ that day to attend the temple with a family from our previous ward he helped the missionaries teach and won't be home until later that night. We have at least 3 soccer games that morning at 9:00, 11:00, and 12:00 with pictures for said teams also being taken that day. There's a possibility for another as we don't have Spencer's schedule yet. (I should mention here that I'm PROFOUNDLY grateful that we don't have three games at the same time with only one driver!) It also happens to be the weekend of our Stake Conference, which isn't until that evening, as far as I know. I guess that leaves Erica and I a couple of hours in the afternoon. Maybe we can squeeze in a quick trip. She, after all, is the only one without something to do that day! Looks like it's time to be filling out my pocket planner again. Sometimes it's important to stay inside the box.