Welcome Briggs!

A new baby seems to bring the spirit of heaven into a family. It seems like such a miracle, especially in this case where it appeared that McCall was only pregnant for three months.


These pictures were taken when Briggs was only 12 hours old.

Cremation, Hmmmmm........

I read Jeff Vice's D-News review of "Bonneville" about three LDS women taking a husband's cremains on a road trip for burial/scattering purposes. Noted LDS actors Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates and Joan Allen star in this action loaded, high drama named after either a car or the Salt Flats. However, the real action is loaded into the comments section of the online article, where the debate rages about cremation and LDS doctrine. Some suggest that either Lange (these were her husband's ashes) or her husband were not paying attention in Sunday School when proper burial etiquette was discussed. I give the following as my ruminations on the matter.

In 1969, in what is now China, a discussion took place between two missionaries about the resurrection and whether God would resurrect individuals with the molecules in their bodies at the time of death or utilize new materials. In other words, are you to be resurrected with the original you or the generic you? Being a college educated man (well, okay one year of college at the time) I just knew that God was all about economy and when the time came for our resurrection we would be re-fashioned with nearby available materials. Wrong! The Prophet Joseph, and other prophets have clarified our spirits have an essence that is uniquely ours and our resurrected bodies will be formed from that essence.

By 1977 I knew cremations were nothing but trouble. A lady came to my window in the Bountiful Post Office with a complaint, "YOU LOST MY MOTHER! WHERE IS SHE? I MAILED HER TO CALIFORNIA BY REGISTERED MAIL AND SHE NEVER SHOWED UP." In my mind I was thinking - can you actually avoid the airfare and get to Disneyland by mailing yourself? The terrible reality involved a family gathering to celebrate the life of this woman and the guest of honor never made it. I knew it all had to do with someone making a wrong turn in the decision making process involving cremation. (BTW her mom was delivered to the correct address at a mortuary, unfortunately the old mortuary company had moved to a new location and the forwarding order had expired - no pun intended - and mom was waiting patiently on the self at the old mortuary.)

In 1990, a dear neighbor passed away and I, representing the Bishop who was out of town, went to her home to meet with her husband to express condolences. I was stunned when told that she was to be cremated. This couldn't be! What was he thinking? How do I stop this terrible mistake? What was the Bishop going to think of me? He leaves for a few days and I let one of his ward members get cremated. I was a mess. Finally I called the stake president and confessed my failing and I would understand if he wanted to replace me. What happens next just stuns me. The stake president assured me that cremation was not in violation of God's law. What? When did this all happen??? The bishop returned, I informed him of the cremation and he said "no problem." To my surprise it was a wonderfully sweet funeral. Hmmm.....


You won't believe what's next. Just what is in that cooler?

Signs of the Spirit . . .

A million people attempted to get tickets for the MTC Christmas concert this past week. Last year we all were successful in the drawing and had tickets to give away. This year Matt drew out with 8 tickets. We parked 6-8 blocks away and walked in the freezing weather to the Conference Center were they have become quite proficient in jamming 20,000+ people into their various sections. We were upper balcony at the far west end. I was a little leary of the King Singers being interesting for a whole program. We loved Sissel last year and I didn't expect to experience a home run performance again. I'm thinking of Walter Cronkite, Peter Graves and other non-memorable outings. Not expecting much, I came away very satisfied and feeling like Christmas. I also heard the Choir broadcast this morning and it was terrific. One of the ward members was in the audience and said the First Presidency were there and the King Singers sang 'Danny Boy' for the Prophet.

The next night we went to the Utah Symphony and Symphony Chorus. Ruth is a member of the chorus and it was quite a contrast. The symphony was wonderful and everyone was pleased. But one was Christmas and the other was very classical. Good mix for the week.

Tonight the grandkids made more ginger bread houses and cookies and were at their best. Payton and Boston pulled on the ends of a chicken wishbone and for the first time in my experience the top popped off and could not be found and two boys each had the remained in their hands. I call that a win for both. I was brought to tears when Payton whispered to me that his wish was for Andrew to be safe in Iraq.

Girls Day Out

Saturday, 6:30 p.m., four women dragged themselves into my house for the finale of what has become the event of the year. This was much earlier than I had planned. I thought I had until 8 or 9 p.m. Unfortunately, three of them neglected to turn off their phones and they succumbed to importuning husbands wondering how much longer they would be indulging themselves while the husbands struggled to lovingly interact with the tiresome tikes.

This event is now well planned with husbands given strict instructions to keep that day clear for bonding with their children. As one of my sons complained about his inability to accomplish anything because tending the children took his time, April reminded him he wasn't 'tending' he was 'parenting'.

This year, as the previous 3 or 4 years, it started at 9:30 with Deb, April, McCall and Teresa all leaving the kids in the care of their dads and heading for a day of relaxation. I am told this includes pedicures, manicures, massages, movies, lunch, talking, shopping, lunch, movies, talking, and - (I'm sure I missed something).

SO I am going to put something together for the men. I'm thinking about something like a man adventure. Start at Cabella's for ideas, ice fishing on the Jordan, skeet shooting, cart racing at Winners, ending at Famous Daves. Hmmm.(?)

More pieces of the puzzle. . .

The past week has been loaded with excitement, both the highs and lows. We put up more Christmas lights this year than ever before. We can do this because we recently added to our our storage space with new cabinets in the garage and a new storage shed under the deck. We now have a place to put all the Christmas projects.

As it turns out my previous blog about the demise of the old tree by the deck is not accurate. We spared the tree in a much reduced form. In digging out under the deck I ran into several roots Which I spared and built around.


Initially the storage was to be just a small space but ended up being 8' x 10', with some consideration for some roots.
Now all the yard furniture and chairs and grill and snowblower, etc have a space to hide. After the lights were installed we finally got some winter around here. We had about 8" of snow yesterday.

Work is at its most hectic. Finding people who even want to work is difficult at best. 15 years ago we cut our HR work force from 54 employees down to 24. I was doing Labor Relations at the time and couldn't imagine how it would work without staff. But it did work and now we still have similar numbers and additional challenges. Now the entire HR function is my responsibility.

The futurists tell us the number of jobs in the US and the number of employees to fill those jobs will cross for the first time in 2011. There will be a terrific competition to grab potential employees. Unfortunately, we are already at 2011 in UT. Our unemployment rate is 2.8 and the national average is 4.7%. For the first time in my memory many businesses are advertising jobs instead of their products. This hits us hard and if we didn't have Catholic Charities continually bringing refugees from around the world to UT we wouldn't be making it. Currently, most of them are coming from the Sudan and a large number of them are former "Lost Boys" who are now found. These workers are among our very best. They know how to work and are not afraid to do it. Unfortunately, most only work temporary jobs with no benefits. Very few of them pass entrance exams with high enough score to be chosen from hiring registers. Many of these workers are Muslims and many are Christians. We have had our share of religious incidents to deal with. I have attached a picture of Shirley, my professional assistant, and some of my staff from our year end meeting in October at Snowbird. They all make me look good at work.

I just spoke with Andrew and asked him about his blog. He has done nothing with it since his Germany blog. At present he has no way to update the blog due to a lack of connectivity and internet access. Part of the puzzle piece of getting him back here to go to dental school has been solved because he has been accepted at 3-4 schools. We are hoping he will choose UNLV because it is the closest. The next hurdle is to convince the brigade commander that he should be allowed to leave Iraq 6 months early to go to school. The Army either gets a long term officer out of the deal or they lose an officer in 09.

Sometimes life is great and on track and sometimes . . .