Rasmania 101: I'm now 60!

I neglected to mention Mav's birthday last week. He's 4 years-old now. Time goes fast.

I didn't put any pictures of the Green kids when I mentioned that I spent Saturday evening with them. Adrienne sent me this one of Ila--ready for bed.

I finished Mav's birthday present a little bit late. I hope he loves it. I used bamboo batting as well as minky, so it should be super soft.

Mav with his birthday blanket

We had a multi-stake YM/YW Fireside this past week. Our speaker was Collin Kartchner. He did a great job and communicated well with the kids. He talked about the things that can be done for good on the internet, and also how there is a lot of content that deprives us of joy. So many kids suffer because of social media. He had some good ideas of things kids and parents can do to protect ourselves from some of the dangers.
He suggested that we 1) eliminate one app/game/thing that distracts us from our relationship with our Savior. 2) Pick a day each week to have a no phones/screens for a four hour period (5-9 pm). 3) Keep your kids phones with you at bedtime (I don't have to worry about this anymore, and I'm pretty sure none of my grand kids have a phone yet, but it won't be too far off). He said that it keeps them from sleeping and lack of sleep is the leading cause of depression in teens. He suggested that the ym/yw all go home and completely delete snap chat (and TikTok if they have it--he said TikTok is the large and spacious building and has no redeeming qualities) and to unfollow every person or group that doesn't make them happy.
For the fireside I was responsible to fill the regional center. We've had the speaker scheduled for a year, but I didn't get the assignment until November. I invited every stake in our multi-stake group, but they already had firesides or other activities scheduled in January. So, I invited our old stake (Bountiful Heights), and we already had a stake from Ogden interested, so I followed up with them. Then one of the other leaders invited the North Canyon Stake (which was the first stake we lived in when we moved back to Utah in 1998). There was another Ogden stake that was interested, but though I sent word they were welcome, they somehow missed the message until a couple of weeks before the event. They said that some would come from their stake. I was so nervous until starting time when the building looked full enough that I could relax. We ended up having over 1400 people there. The building fits 2300, so we could have fit one more stake. It was "comfortably" full (Roy's language), so I was happy.

Crista came down on Thursday afternoon to spend most of the weekend. Matt had a conference in Salt Lake where he had the opportunity to present.

Crista went to hear his presentation while I played with Greta (she took Bridget, and Jieun took Ruby to her house). Greta was supposed to nap, so, I put her to bed and went upstairs. She came up within 5 minutes and said she was done with her nap, could she have her gum (an agreed upon treat for when her nap was over). I said she had to have a real nap. This time I put her in my bed and had a nap with her. When I rest in the daytime, I use a sleep mask. I offered her one and let her choose the color.

She chose green. It's a cool mask--literally, it has little green beads that have a slight weightiness to them and they keep your head cool. She slept with it the whole time--even though it covered almost her whole face!

Matt and Crista ate dinner with us and got Ruby and Greta to bed (with my help--they wanted me to read to them). Then they went back to a party at the conference and Roy and I played with Bridget. Soon we took her to bed with us and put her in the middle while we watched Netflix. As you can see she was totally content and happy. When she started to get fidgety, we put her to bed. She fussed for about 3 minutes and went to sleep. Lucky parents.

I had my usual monthly genealogy meeting with the Cook Family Organization on Saturday morning. It was brought up that one of our ancestors was mentioned in a talk Elder Ballard gave in Massachusetts. Here is the link Elder Ballard talks about John Howland, but I'm also quoting a small part of the article:

"Because of my own DNA connection to the British Isles, I was particularly interested in the English men, women, and children who made the long voyage on the Mayflower to the New World, where they hoped to retain their English identity, enjoy the same degree of religious freedom they had found as strangers in the Dutch Netherlands, and earn a better living. Among them was a young, single man, an indentured servant to John Carver, and my ninth great-grandfather, John Howland. The ocean voyage across the Atlantic took 66 days before the Pilgrims, literally “ones who came from afar,” arrived off the coast of New England on November 11, 1620. During that historic voyage, the crew and passengers of the Mayflower encountered many turbulent storms. In the middle of one storm, young John fell overboard. By all accounts, that should have been the end of John Howland. However, the Lord had other plans for him. William Bradford, also a passenger on the Mayflower, reported: “In these storms the winds were so fierce and the seas so high the Pilgrims were forced to remain below deck. And one of them John Howland came above and, with a roll of the ship, he was thrown into the sea; but it pleased God that he caught hold of a rope that was trailing in the water and held on though he was several fathoms under water till he was hauled up by the same rope to the brim of the water, and then with a boat-hook and other means got him into the ship again and his life was saved; and though he was something ill with it, yet he lived many years after, and became a profitable member both in church and commonwealth.” When the Mayflower finally arrived in the New World, they discovered they were more than 250 miles north of their intended location. Because of the lateness of the season and lack of supplies, they decided to stay there. When they explored their new home, they found land already cleared, corn supplies, and an abandoned village whose inhabitants had died in the disease epidemic of 1616 to 1618. 3 Later, a leader of one of the villages arrived in the struggling settlement to help the Pilgrims. They formed an alliance, and during the second fall after their arrival in the New World, 52 colonists and some 90 natives celebrated Plymouth’s first successful harvest—the first “Thanksgiving” in Plymouth. At the time, John Howland was not as famous as fellow passengers William Bradford, John Carver, and Myles Standish. However, standing where we now stand, with nearly 400 years between us and these courageous Pilgrims, he may have had a greater impact on the history of the United States than any of them. About four years after they arrived in the New World, John married fellow Mayflower passenger Elizabeth Tilley, a brave and committed daughter of God. They eventually had 10 children and nearly 90 grandchildren. But that is not where the story ends. Today, an estimated 2 million Americans trace their roots to John and Elizabeth. Their descendants include three U.S. presidents—Franklin D. Roosevelt, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush; American poets Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; and two influential 19th-century American religious leaders—the prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum Smith. Think about it for a moment—the existence of these political leaders, poets, and prophets hinged on this one young man finding and grabbing a rope in the ocean and holding on tight to be saved. It was a miracle!"
The point of the talk was that we need to acknowledge the Lord's hand in our lives. Elder Ballard continues, "Brothers and sisters, please look for the Lord’s hand in your lives and in the lives of your family, as I do in the lives of my ancestors and family. Expect it. Do not dismiss it. Do not relegate the experiences in your lives to coincidences. As you see the hand of the Lord in your lives, thank Him for it. Please record and share your stories. The more you recognize the Lord’s hand in your lives, the more you will see it in your lives today."

Roy and I celebrated my birthday Saturday evening. We went to Market Street Grill (birthday coupon), and then to Knives Out (a movie).

Then on Sunday, all the kids came over to celebrate my birthday--the big 60 (you can't put numbers in caps, but I tried). It was pointed out to me a couple of times that my birthday this year is a palindrome 0202/2020