Gracie Gone - Lucy Loved

Nora N'Updates

With All My Love

Dear Children

When in church a few months ago, I was so pleasantly surprised to see a sister holding her phone up, transmitting the lesson live, to a home bound sister. Imagine my surprise Sunday to find this same home bound sister, transmitting live from her bed, teaching the RS lesson!?! She did a beautiful job. I can just imagine a whole room of sisters holding up phones to share meetings with others. Technology can be a beautiful thing. Home bound Primary children would love it! as well as their class.

Monday your siblings had no school, and a half a day of school on Friday preceding this. Staff training or something. But it is nice to have Mondays off when this happens. We did lots of piano lessons, a bit of cleaning and yard work, and an afternoon of playing with friends. One new family in the ward lives literally on the bank of a canal that branches off of Lake Granbury. It was like having their own private swimming pool. Boats, kayaks and jet skis were enjoyed by all. It was hard to go back to school Tuesday morning. I enjoyed the time at home alone. I'm still packing up Cooper's room, cleaning, and making it into a permanent guest room. I don't care if someone wants to sleep there, but I'm not moving one of the bodies currently at home with their belongings in there.

You boys make my day when you call me and share your exploits. Porter will be contemplating the benefits of eating banana skin. Hunter sharing his leftover work related dinner with Porter. Tanner's messages of love from the confines of the basement. And Cooper? The quietest freshmen I've ever had. Thank goodness for InstaGram.

[Although this letter was never finished - it will always end the same!]

Love,

Mom

The Working Man's Words

Basmati and Bellagio: September 16-22, 2019 by Hunter Schenewark

Holy moley. Sorry, (almost) no pictures folks, use your imagination. I've thought that things would slow down, and I could catch up a bit. Nopers. Nice try. Life is moving quick here.

I decided to increase my budget by $100 monthly. Currently, all in, fixed and variable expenses, I'm spending $900 monthly (excluding tithing and taxes); What does $100 mean? Basmati rice. No more sticky varieties. Can't believe what a difference it makes. Additionally, impulse spends are all the rage. I spent $20 to buy Bellagio-branded pillows. My old standbys had been flattened to just over an inch after years of wear, so these are proving wonderful and well-worth the money.

Monday we had our FHE ward opening social down at a park. For the first time in years, I threw around a football, and man, I was hucking it. Fast and accurate. It was a lot of fun. My roommate Tyler has been participating in the ward a lot more, and it's been fun to have him join me at these events. We both went in with personal objectives of talking with two certain young ladies, and both failed pretty bad. Oh well. The night was still enjoyable.

Tuesday I woke up with a screaming sore throat and all the signs of a wicked cold virus. (Some ward members and nearly all my work colleagues had been out, as it was a pretty vicious virus, and came when the temp dropped 15 degrees). I still worked, taking lunch to livestream Pres. Nelson speak to BYU and YSA's across the world. The 5 truths he spoke of:

1. We are sons and daughters of God.
2. Truth is truth,
3. God loves every one of us with a perfect love.
4. The Lord Jesus Christ, whose church this is, appoints prophets and apostles to communicate his love and teach his laws.
5. You may know for yourself what is true and what is not.

#4 was quite significant, as Pres. Nelson explained in greater depth of why the policy concerning the baptism of minors whose parents are LGBTQ. I know many people who have struggled with the changes both in 2015 and 2019, and as Pres. Nelson spoke received a further witness that he is called of God, to lead his church at this time.

At 5pm, I attended the now-weekly Tuesday evening company-wide meeting. Con: it lasted a full hour. Pro: they catered BBQ for us, and I ate some delicious brisket. I was, however, an hour late to day 2 of my LSAT prep, catching the 7-9 pm part.

Wednesday the throat felt a lot better, but either the cold had moved onto my sinuses or allergies hit. Playing the mind game with myself, i called it allergies and felt a tad better about the situation. I took off from work 1/2 an hour early and met up with Rick Holmes. He was the high councilor in my last ward. We played 9 at Fox Hollow. I played fantastic the first 4 holes, awful #'s 5-6, before pulling it back together the last 3. We had a great time, even though Bro. Holmes edged me by one.

From there, tires squealing, I made it back just in time to start the EQ Presidency meeting. We had a great time, being joined by our High Councilor Bro. Sutton (from New Zealand) discussing mainly ministering. We went long and I missed book club, no regrets though.

Thursday was the worst-feeling day. I did use some peppermint essential oil and that incredibly helped me a lot. (Disclaimer: I'd probably give genuine snake-oil a try too). This time, I spaced and forgot what time my LSAT class started, and after taking a 20 minute nap realized that I was already late, again missing the first hour.

Friday I left work at 2 and spent the final few hours logged in from home. My body needed the rest, and I was grateful to be able to relax and rejuvenate. This made a huge difference, and helped me turn the corner. By 6:30, I was up and off to see Neil Gorsuch, of the US Supreme Court speak at BYU. Tanner saved me a great seat and I used all my finely-tuned crowd-beating skills to quickly enter, showing the requisite ticket and id, and talking myself into the lineless "reserved seating" door. The event was a blast; not so much for what he said, as for what it made me want to do. Bonus was hearing President Oaks (of the 1st Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and President Worthen (president of BYU). Also attending: Elder D. Todd Christofferson, Steve Young, Jonathan Johnson, and Senators Orrin Hatch, and Mike Lee. Tanner bought a copy of Gorsuch's book, "A Republic, if you can keep it" and had the Justice sign it "Welcome to the profession Hunter, Neil Gorsuch." Very kind of my brother.

Saturday I went and looked at the invitation to Abbey's wedding, wondering what the address was for her luncheon. To my surprise, a small card previously unopened fell out, and I realized I was in fact invited to their sealing. So I got ready and rode with Tanmarie up to that. Grampy performed the ordinance wonderfully, offering great counsel. Dealing less with marriage and pertaining to all of us there, he shared his acronym, One Simple Goal, Choose Christ, which has already blessed my life, and influenced my thinking. Pictures have to be at least a little painful, and after the few required ones that i was a part of, I skedaddled with Uncle Aaron over to the luncheon location. Time dragged, but Uncle Aaron kept us all entertained and I've had the song "truly Scrumptious" running through my head since he played it there a few times. The ring ceremony was cool. and Michael's dad did a great job overseeing that. Abbey and Michael read each other some personal vows too, before exchanging rings. Lunch was delicious, and surprisingly hearty. Then, we all suffered indigestion. Aunt Jenny and Uncle Roger both spoke briefly, and I was touched, and loved their words. Michael's parents did a great job as well. Stevie, the bridesmaid was brief and eloquently talked about Abbey and their friendship. Then Michael's best man spoke. I've been golfing with him once before and thus wasn't surprised with the speech. And it was a speech, going on for 7ish minutes. And roughly 10 Uncle Aaron facepalms in that time frame, with all of us wondering what the heck was going on, and if it was possible to turn the mic off. We survived though, and shortly after we took off.

After taking care of some housekeeping and mundane tasks, the special night that Tyler and I had planned was upon us. He made homemade rootbeer, and I supplied homemade vanilla ice cream, and we had invited 7-8 other people over to join us around a fire. He was interested in Maddie from the ward and had her over, but apparently the allure of fire was too much, and 25-30 people ended up stopping by our backyard, wondering what was going on, and inviting themselves over to see. Alas. The night went anything but what I had thought and hoped for, leaving me rather disheartened by the turn of events and inability to get to know someone in particular. Oy vey.

I did enjoy having Porter over, and at 10:30, the 20 people still there were successfully corralled by Tyler over to a neighbor's house where there were mocktails being sold and a 1920's themed night happening, remembering F. Scott Fitzgerald's birthday. Porter and I enjoyed the dying embers and talked for 45 minutes.

Admittedly, I tossed and turned a bit, going to bed at almost 1, and waking up in time to get ready for today's 7:30 a.m. stake leadership training. That lasted until 9:30, and then we had stake conference from 10-12. Elder Jaggi, an area authority presided. He is only 46, and he and his wife were amazing! Great energy, and strong testimonies. I wrote down about 10 invitations they extended, and will have my hands full trying to achieve what they challenged. Here are two lines that made a great impact.

-Comparison is the thief of joy.

-God will always comfort you, but you won't always be comfortable.

And truly that is so! Our Savior is always here for us, and God is only a whisper away. As Alma 7:11-13 says, "And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.
13 Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me."

And that is the testimony which is in me. Recently I've been reading Bruce R. McConkie's book, "The Promised Messiah," at lunch. Every time I read about our Savior, I can feel the Spirit. I know that Christ lives. I know of his divinity. Of the reality of his atonement, and ennobling grace. And I know of his love. 2 Nephi 1:15 (One of my all-time favorite verses):

But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love.

Now just to finish the week off here: -One other takeaway from conference concerned dating. Inspired and emboldened, I nevertheless questioned whether i should go ask someone out right then. I gave the question the old scripture test, flipping to a random page, which this time happened to be D+C 58:26-29:

For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is ^acompelled in all things, the same is a ^bslothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.

27 Verily I say, men should be ^aanxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;

28 For the power is in them, wherein they are ^aagents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their ^breward.

29 But he that ^adoeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with ^bdoubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is ^cdamned.

Okey dokey, I gathered my gumption and at the conclusion of conference went and asked Caroline on a date for Friday, to which she sweetly said yes.

After leaving, I picked up Porter and Cooper, and we went to Uncle Ben's for one last hurrah before Mimi and Grampy headed back to Boston. We had lunch, swapped tales, ate lots of pie, and scrabbled together. What a day.

With All My Love

Dear Boys,

I've collected a few thoughts over the week but was too busy on Saturday to finish the letter and get it posted, even though it's dated the 22nd. Now it's the 25th :-)

During my last five minutes of the shift I wrote down a few of the calls that made the day a crazy day. They included two escapes from a secure facility, an accident involving an overturned Penske truck, an accident involving a violation of a protection order resulting in an arrest, an accident involving a DWI driver, one accident involving a stolen vehicle resulting in an arrest, one traffic stop resulting in an arrest because of outstanding felony warrants, a burglary in progress, four ambulance requests, another one in the jail. Protestors due to the Amber Guyer trial, shots fired at a park, loose horses, more major and minor accidents, and three armed subjects on BOLOs. Yeah. One of those days. And I go home to my little happy bubble, so glad to have family and peace surrounding me. I love the gospel.

Breyer decided she was going to run for the girl class representative in her classroom. She was going against five girls, and there were three boys for the other spot. This decision required her to write her own speech, and share a poster. When she came home Wednesday and told us she lost, in second place, because her competitor handed out candy, we laughed. Just like real life for sure. Of course we told her how proud we are of her making this effort, encouraged her to try again, and reminded her to support the winner. And laughed some more.

Breyer's school also celebrated First Responder's Day, of which I am officially since the 1st of September. Because I was not able to go, she brought home a goodie bag for me.

Speaking of Breyer, she wanted to play spy with me. She changed her clothes, redid her hair, collected a pair of walkie talkies, put in an ear phone for her unit, gathered paper, pen with invisible ink, and went off on her covert assignments. She enjoyed spying on Miller, peeking in on Dad, rescuing the dog. But taking the knives out of the autoclave after sterilization treatment was not her idea of spy work.

We got together with the Gammons gang plus and went to the Texas Rangers vs Oakland A's baseball game last Saturday. I came from work, and met the gang high on the upper deck. It was a hot night. Thank goodness for their $1 refills. Rather than remembering the game, I think we'll all be remembering the car problems Dad had while driving home. He found a flat tire on his Prius in the parking lot. Had some help putting on the donut, and then the catalytic converter was done. Overclogged, the car couldn't go faster than 20  mph. Having to use freeways to get from Arlington to Granbury was not fun for him. They got home close to 1:30 a.m., with me falling asleep holding my phone in case they needed to be rescued.

We put the car in the shop Monday to the tune of $900 something big ones. Ouch! Realistically it could be about 2.5 car payments, which we don't want, but hopefully will go a long way in fixing the car. There are a few more issues that need to be cleaned up.

The boys and Dad continue to play baseball Tuesday evenings, under the lights for a few $$ now. Miller had his first game Saturday. With my new schedule I'll miss all eight game weekends unless I take one or two off. Dad attended the home owner association meeting so I think Sawyer's the only one that went. Dad took them bowling in the afternoon. That's their second venture on a Saturday afternoon as there's a special on the price then. They love it.

I'm looking forward to hearing about the weekend adventures in Utah with grandparents, cousins and a wedding. Fun! Find Cooper and tell him to call me. Remind Porter to buy some food. Remind Tanner to change the complicated Amazon password for me. Remind Hunter to be thinking about flying home at Christmas.

Love,

Mom

Daily in Dallas

"If violent crime is to be curbed, it is only the intended victim who can do it. The felon does not fear the police, and he fears neither the judge nor jury. Therefore, what he must be taught to fear is his victim."  LtCol Jeff Cooper

co-worker Frankly

view from the top of the court house

overturned cement truck

car on fire

Freshmen Fun

Cooper's beginning bowling class

Breyer on Fire

I think I should be class representative because I'm organized and will report all the things that happen.

I will use all of your ideas and try my hardest to make it happen and even the juice fountain I'll vote for that for sure unless our class does not want to vote for it.

Vote Breyer Schenewark

Nora N'Updates

The Working Man in the Sophomore Scene

Sawyer the Sophomore

With All My Love

I had a wonderful trip to Boston. The flight out included a bit of Dorian over New York, more of a sideways wind vs. up and down turbulence. Leaving straight from work gets me to the airport with enough time to park in long term parking, take the shuttle to the terminal, and check in for the flights, this trip also included checking my bags in for free at the gate. I love walking on and off a plane with nothing in my hands. I was the only one in line for the rental car, and arrived on Deacon St.around 1 a.m. with Dad up waiting for me.

Saturday morning I accompanied Mom to a wedding reception mid morning, where I found Aaron.Bonus! When we arrived home Jen was waiting. She accompanied me to see Sara at her cute French restaurant, and Rachael at her library. When we returned home, both our parents were sleeping. Which you can do when you're retired, have fifty grandchildren, and approaching 80 years of age. We went on a glorious, long fall walk, via Aaron, circling around to find our parents awake on the back porch in their new furniture. We decided to grill hamburgers for dinner, and my twin and I were off again, for onion rings, and a few items from Lowes. I always love catching up with Tommy when I'm in town. The burgers were great, the rings amazing, the black raspberry ice cream yummy, and the company wonderful. We played Five Crowns, with Aaron, Rachael and Anna, as well. I squeaked out with a win with Anna in a close second.

Sunday morning I drove myself to the Worcester Ward to hear Aaron in a high councilor assignment to speak in sacrament meeting. What a treat! I have listened to many, many high councilors over the years, and was enthralled with Bro. Hutchins. He doesn't read a talk, he makes eye contact, he has humor, he shares poignant stories about himself and others, and beautifully taught on his subject of ministering. My favorite part of his talk was when he referenced his favorite scripture in Acts 3:1-7 where the lame man was seeking alms from Peter. He said, "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee." So often what we inherently have been given, or developed, is enough for those whom we minister. Including the Priesthood.  I would travel all over the stake to listen to him. And I got a good bye hug to boot.

The Marlborough Ward was next, and I was surprised to find Becky waiting for us in the chapel. I guess I thought I'd see her after church. What fun to hold sassy pants the whole meeting. She's strong, stubborn, wiggly, and adorable. Liam also made it clear he wanted to be held. Becky's one lucky mother, and so good at what she does.

Rachael offered to host a lunch to gather with family. So kind. And so yummy. Jen and Roger, Ann Bach, Aunt Shirley, Mom and Dad, Sara and Anna, Becky and myself. Not too much testosterone around the table but loads of good times and food.

Rich and Aaron were in Cambridge on a regional training, so how fun he had to drive by Deacon St. enroute to Connecticut. He regaled us with the wonderful stories of the evening, Aaron's question that changed the whole tenure of the meeting, and other late dinner niceties. It was good to see him.

It was fun listening to all the phone calls come in from family members Sunday evening. They got comfortable in their chairs, and went from conversation to conversation. Learned Greg has Dale Murphy in his ward, who was trying to make lunch arrangements with the folks while they were in Utah. Learned Hunter might be dating Elder Holland's grand daughter. Jarrod misses me but is happy to share. Porter is more than willing to pass along any and all tax information related to you and your house via his BYU class. Cooper got a bit sick this week. Breyer was running for her class representative and had a speech to write. Miller misses my food. Sawyer misses clean clothes. The dog is still shedding. A lot. And I am still allergic to poison ivy.

Monday was manly to-do's. I mowed the lawn, which was a manly no-no. I carried down two shelving units Dad's putting together to house his DVD collection. Also a manly no-no. The day ended on a manly yes-yes when Dad decided we needed to go out to eat, and as Aaron was home alone, he came and picked Bertucci's. Very yummy. Good company, good food, good way to end my visit.

Dad got to see Sawyer play in a pre-season basketball weekly tournament. He said Sawyer did really well, and they got some good clips. Definitely worth the drive, as compared to last week's playing time. Sawyer didn't play much in the summer league so the fill-in coach-parent had him sitting a lot. With the coach on the sidelines. I guess he expressed some interest in seeing Sawyer play. He did hit two out of three three's, plus a few put backs.

Until next week -

Mom

Freshmen Fun with the Sophomore Scene

Cooper's working spot on the field

BYU vs USC - win after double overtime

Porter's spot working the clock

New England Niceties

Sophomore Scene

New England Niceties

Luck O'the Lawyer

Nora N'Updates