Westmoreland Asays

This afternoon Meg will undergo an emergency ultrasound to appease her appetite for knowing the sex of the baby that is growing vigorously inside of her. While in Salt Lake/Park City last week, she was tempted (by her friends, of course) to pay for a vanity ultrasound at a boutique in a mall (apparently this is a popular and trendy thing to do)--she even called to tell me that she had gone through with it (she is very good at telling stories that persuade me to believe in something untrue), knowing she could get a good laugh at my expense. Meg has gone back-and-forth with her personal feeling of what the baby's sex is, but lately she has settled on it being a girl. I've been in the boy camp for most of the pregnancy, mainly because that's what I know, but I think I have crossed the lake to the girl's camp now. Regardless, we'll find out this afternoon. If you are reading before I publish the results, check back again soon for the breaking-news-update. Breaking-Updat...

I needed to fill up the G20's gas tank so I don't strand us on I-5 tomorrow when we pick up Meg, so to ensure the boys would come with me without complaint, I offered to buy donuts on the way home. We hit the local Safeway and found a few ducks donuts in the tray; this surprised me since the Beavers are the team making all the noise right now--but maybe those were sold out already . . .

I don't recall when Meg suggested I take the boys camping while she was taking an extended weekend in Salt Lake, but at first I thought that was a silly idea--experiencing the rainy season out-of-doors with two young boys didn't seem like much fun. But when you go camping in a yurt, who cares what the weather is like outside? Meg picked me up at the office after I worked half a day, and we all drove to PDX, dropping off Meg and Susan, who had driven down from Redmond, Washington, the night before. We then turned around and drove back the same way we came until arriving in Astoria--all in the rain. I've driven through Astoria a couple of times, but I've never stopped for long--it's a nice little town. We drove to the highest point in the city to the Astoria Column , hoping to climb to the top for an even better view, but it is closed while they build an entirely new staircase. But the panorama views of the city, the mountains, the river, and the ocean were amazing. W...

My title is somewhat random but mostly a weak and vain effort to rate high on google searches. If you have landed here hoping to find new insight into the book whose title I have stolen for this post, sorry--but take solace in knowing that I own the book and enjoyed reading it very much. My sole purpose for writing today is to speculate why I received a call from a member of my church ward's bishopric yesterday. They usually only call for one reason: to strip you of your current church assignment (I teach sunday school 40 minutes every week to a group of high school juniors and seniors) and give you another duty (or possibly ask you to take on another assignment at the same time). I've only been teaching this class for about 14 months, and I enjoy it very much. I'd love to continue in this responsibility for another five years or more, as it would help me develop my weak teaching skills. But it appears that I am just a rough stone that will continue rolling from one church ...

Aaron and Edward both enjoy playing the many Zelda video games we have, and they have even more fun acting out their own Zelda-themed stories. And now they want to share them with you. Aaron recently voiced his desire to make a movie. He thought to just borrow my flip video camera and make something with no planning. But I told him to write a story first, and then we could shoot some footage. I don't think he realized how much work goes into making what he wanted: writing the story, shooting the footage, creating the soundtrack and narration, and then putting it all together. But he faithfully sat by my side and consulted with me on most decisions. Meg usually shakes her head at the boys when they go into Zelda mode, but she fully supported their efforts, hoping that they "get it out of their system" now, so they don't grow up to be like these goobers .

My brother-in-law returned home from his mission to Ghana late tonight, where he spent the last two years proselyting and serving the people there--all on his own dime. Meg joined much of her family in welcoming him home at PDX (read her take here ), while we-three-boys spent most of the weekend on our own in Capital City.

Click To Play There seems to be a tradition forming: I made my third annual trip to Autzen to watch a Ducks' football game. I took my oldest son, Aaron, with tickets (reserved seating) that I purchased from someone on craigslist for only $25/ticket; we could follow the action of the game just fine, but we were about as high as the stadium goes. The Ducks happened to be playing Utah State (one of my alma maters), so that was an added bonus. Both Aaron and I had a great time cheering and watching the Ducks destroy the Aggies. But I think Aaron's most joyful moment came after the game when he got to run around on the actual football field with thousands of other fans.