Proud Grandparents

At the BBQ to celebrate Isaak's graduation

with High Honors from Davis High School,

I told Isaak I would like to get a picture

of him with all his grandparents.

(Technically,

Isaak only has one grandma and one grandpa

and an oma and an opa.

His oma was born and raised in Austria.)

"I had no grandparents at my high school graduation,"

I lament.

The fact of the matter is,

two of my grandparents

died six years before I was born.

Grandpa Esplin died three months after I was born

and Grandma Heaton died six months later.
It probably didn't mean a thing to Isaak

to have a graduation picture with his grandparents.

We've always been around.

To me, it's a big deal.  

Opa, Oma Fitzgerald; Isaak Hugh; Grandma, Grandpa Hugh

Grandma Esplin making soap.

Grandma Esplin
Emily Alvira Hoyt Esplin

Grandpa Esplin
John James Esplin

Grandma & Grandpa Heaton
Jonathan Heaton and
Lucy Elizabeth Carroll Heaton

Grandma and Grandpa Heaton - 
more casual.

Grandma Heaton holding a grandchild (not me)

This is the only picture I got of Isaak at graduation.

He took a bow just as I snapped a picture

of his image on the scoreboard.

Here's Isaak!
The student speakers paid tribute
to the community,
to the faculty,
to friends,
to classmates,
and to the family.
Julie Tanner from the Board of Education
talked about listening to and honoring family stories
to help you understand where you've been
and where you're going.
Isaak lauded the student speakers.
He was on Senior Committee and knew them all personally.
He thought the Board of Education woman
was weird. They all grew restless.
I was so pleased to hear her value family stories
and I hoped all the young people were listening.

Another difference:

I graduated with a class of 13;

Isaak graduated with 781
(according to my unofficial count).

CONGRATULATIONS ISAAK!
Best Wishes on your mission:
Tucson AZ 
July 20

The Close Call

I found out this morning what it feels like to

Face death.

Riding my trike on a less-traveled dead-end road

A car came zooming up Bella Vista at an inordinate speed

Even though she had the stop sign, I stopped.

Surprisingly, she stopped.

So I resumed.

Suddenly she zoomed forward with the same abandonment

She had sped up the street.

As the bumper loomed and I was trapped,

I let out a blood curdling scream.

She slammed on her brakes and missed me by inches.

Why is she driving so recklessly and distracted?

I have a flag.

I am not invisible.
Eddy was way ahead of me
but if it had happened to him,

I know he wouldn’t have screamed

And that makes me tremble.

It was such an innocent ride
on a lovely cloudy summer day.

Our grandson, Isaak,

wasn't so lucky a few weeks ago.

Miles from home, he stopped at a corner;

she stopped so he started again;
 then she turned into him
knocking him off his bike.

She drove on, leaving him disoriented
to find his way home

on a broken bike.

Fortuitously, he only has a broken wrist.
He had just returned from High Adventure
in rugged Teton Country
and survived with nary a scratch.
 

One More Day Part II

   Smack-dab in the middle of my sincere quest to clean up, we attended our grandson, Isaak’s, Eagle Court of Honor.

 The Eagles' Nest.  Proud Papa on left.

Grandpa furnished the pizza on the day they planted trees for the big Eagle Project.

That was on Sunday.

   Monday evening, a cloudburst with strong winds, hail, and torrents of rain  pounded us soundly.

   We marveled at the rainbow afterwards.

 According to Genesis, after Noah's flood God put the rainbow in the sky as the sign of His promise that He would never again destroy the earth with flood (Genesis 9:13–17):

I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

 Did you know that Joseph Smith promised that the second coming of the Christ would not occur in any year in which a rainbow is seen?

   Until Amy sounded the alarm again, we did not know that muddy water was gushing into the basement from the window well.  At least it was clean water last time.  We didn’t quite have the carpet squares re-laid from our last flood.  Oh, about two weeks ago.

  Before going to bed, we watch the news:

May 20 2013 02:24 pm

MOORE, Okla. • A monstrous tornado at least a half-mile wide roared through the Oklahoma City suburbs Monday, flattening entire neighborhoods and destroying an elementary school with a direct blow as children and teachers huddled against winds up to 200 mph. At least 51 people were killed, including at least 20 children, and officials said the death toll was expected to rise.

The storm laid waste to scores of buildings in Moore, a community of 41,000 people about 10 miles south of the city. Block after block lay in ruins. Homes were crushed into piles of broken wood. Cars and trucks were left crumpled on the roadside. The National Weather Service issued an initial finding that the tornado was an EF-4 on the enhanced Fujita scale, the second most-powerful type of twister.

Tuesday update:

May 21 2013 06:15 am • Updated 2 hours ago

Moore, Okla. • Helmeted rescue workers raced Tuesday to complete the search for survivors and the dead in the Oklahoma City suburb where a mammoth tornado destroyed countless homes, cleared lots down to bare red earth and claimed 24 lives, including those of nine children.

Scientists concluded the storm was a rare and extraordinarily powerful type of twister known as an EF5, ranking it at the top of the scale used to measure tornado strength. Those twisters are capable of lifting reinforced buildings off the ground, hurling cars like missiles and stripping trees completely free of bark.

The death toll was revised downward from 51 after the state medical examiner said some victims may have been counted twice in the confusion.

   Our triumphs and troubles suddenly seemed insignificant.