Her Story, His Story

On Mothers’ Day this year I sent my girls off to Utah with their Grandparents. Now it’s Fathers’ Day and Josh is off in Texas.

The highlight of this week has been Cousin Fest. Annie, Jack, and Eliza are staying here at Grandma’s house for a couple of weeks, so Kate and Jane are in heaven with cousins around to play with. Add to that an outing to the zoo with Woodford cousins on Tuesday, a noodle fight with Uncle Jeff, and a surprise visit from the Roosevelt crew over the weekend and you pretty much have my girls’ definition of the perfect life.

My Mom and I went down to the Church History Library this week. Alan invited us to meet him there. He gave us a tour and then showed us how to look up information, read microfilm, etc. We were a little noisier and more awkward than most of the patrons, but we eventually figured out the procedure.

I got to look at a handwritten journal of Catherine Parsons Staker. It was fun to find little tidbits that give you insight into who she was. She taught school with her mother at Winter Quarters. Her family was quarantined for smallpox before they started West with the Saints so her husband borrowed a pattern from a wagon shop and built his own wagon to take across the plains. Once they got to Utah she learned to love gardening. Her grandchildren called her “Cookie Grandma” because she alway had cookies for them to eat when they came to visit. My favorite tidbit was a couple of lines from her patriarchal blessing which told her she had the gift of healing and even raising from the dead if her faith was sufficient. Then she wrote, “But somehow my faith always gave out when I saw someone die.” I loved that. You can see so much of her sense of humor, her humanity, and, I think, her spiritual strength in that simple statement.

While I was in the Reading Room with the microfilm Alan took Kate and Jane on an adventure. The girls were both hungry and tired but Alan took them to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for lunch and then played with them on Temple Square until my Mom and I emerged from the Church History Library about an hour and a half later. The girls were laughing and dancing when we found them. Kate’s version of the outing was this: “We had chips and a cookie for lunch and a quesadilla for dessert!” Alan’s version was that they had a quesadilla, chocolate milk and fruit for dinner. When Kate ratted him out he admitted that they first went to the Lion House to eat but the girls were not getting excited about the food. The server, sensing the situation would rapidly deteriorate, quickly handed him a couple bags of chips and said, “Here. Take these.” Alan opened the chips, bought a couple cookies, then regrouped while they walked down the street and tried dinner again, much more successfully, at the JSMB. I’m not sure about Alan, but the girls had a grand time.

Josh started at BCG this week. I’m going to let him write his side of the story:

I started this week in my new summer internship. The first week has been mostly training classes, but I did receive my first assignment. I’ve been staffed on a due diligence case for an energy company acquisition. I wanted to work on an energy case and I feel fortunate they made it possible for me. If the acquisition goes through I will then transition to a post-merger integration team and work on fitting the two companies together. I am very excited, but a little nervous to start work with the team tomorrow. I hope I fit in and can contribute. It was fun reading through the preliminary prospectus because I realize how applicable everything I’ve learned over the last year is to my new job.

Dallas has been really fun. I am sharing an apartment with another Wharton student. His wife and child are in Tucson for the summer and so it was the perfect arrangement for both of us. He is an ex-submarine officer and has been very helpful. Last Sunday he even drove me to church and then picked me up after the meetings! Our place is less than a mile from the office, and so we get up early and walk to the office.

This weekend I drove down to Austin to spend Father’s Day with Jon, Laura, Christian, and Grace. I have had a great time with them! I helped support Jon at his sprint triathlon today (he did awesome!!), and we have filled the rest of the weekend barbecuing, visiting the book store, eating ice cream, and hanging out in their beautiful backyard. Jon even invited me to one of his team’s swim training sessions early yesterday morning and I learned how to breathe on my left side! I’ve decided I may have to come every weekend! Today is Father’s Day and I am especially missing my girls today. It makes it easier to be with family here in Austin, and we have done a couple of Skype calls with Sunny and the girls to help bridge the distance!! The girls are cute, but I wish I could hold all three of them!

I miss y’all and love you!

So there you have it. We are keeping busy, loving being close to family, enjoying the warm weather, but missing our Josh.