And His Name Shall Be. . .

Reddin Everett Menzie!

I got nominated to write this post by my sweet Baby Mama. She must think I'm not pulling my weight in the blogging world or maybe she is super busy with the kiddos. Or both.

It's official, Mr. Reddin is blessed and STILL has a name. Actually he has had that name for about 12 years. Thanks to my siblings for not using it. On February 8th (Heathers B-day) friends and family came to town and participated in the blessing of our dear mellow son.

Our bestest friends Josh, Erica with their perfect little handsome Mason Starr flew in from Texas on Friday night. We are glad they made it safely since equipment malfunction almost prevented their departure. My mom, Ama, also came on Friday, we are glad she made it too. It seems in an effort to cut expenses Delta has made a poor decision to cut flight benefits from the parents of our companies employees. The problem when the cut was made with no advanced notice only days prior to Ama's scheduled flight. She already paid the required taxes for the flight and was still listed online so I figured she would be "grandfathered" or should I say "grandmothered" in. She woke up even before "Farmer John" and drove 100 miles to SLC to make a 7:00am flight to find she couldn't get on. She was stuck. I was in New York working, trying get our flight off the gate so I quickly called my dearest and instructed her to "priceline it". She did a superb job for having never pricelined before. Thanks babe and thanks Mom for your patience. Even sitting around in airports all day as she seems to do often while flying standby, Ama never complains. Maybe cause the time passed so quickly while she was crocheting Reddin's blessing booties. Muchísimas gracias.

Saturday is a special day, it is the day we get ready for Sunday. We go out for lunch, we take an airboat ride, we look for gators, we eat some gator tail, and some frogs legs and we call it our let us have fun-day.

After a nice lunch at Jason's Deli we trekked up to the St. Johns river off Hwy 520 for an airboat ride. The Mrs. kindly watched the little boys, while big girl Mattie got to go on the ride with us. The airboat captain said there was no guarantee we'd see gators. Probably a good thing for them cause they wouldn't have made a cent that day. A little nippy and overcast means them gators take off from gawking at us snap happy tourists. But we got our revenge and it tasted so good. Erica and my mom wouldn't eat but a nibble, if you could even call it that. Neither of them dared to look at the frog legs. Certainly they were the best I've ever had. Minimal swampy taste and a nice breading made for "good eats". I think I might even suggest my bud Alton Brown to attempt to duplicate such yumminess.

Sunday afternoon came and would you know, we made it to church on time. Lately it seems when I am home on Sunday we run pretty late. While I'm on the road Heather assures me she is always on time. Go figure.

For some reason I am a little weird about repetitious prayers and especially in baby blessings. I am not knocking anyone of you or your husbands, mainly just myself. So, I go up there with a rehearsed intro to the blessing which evolves a different word structure other than "and the name by which he shall be known on the records of the church is. . .". That part was fine. During the prayer my mind if filled with promptings from the spirit and I do my best to express those feelings without common phrasing. I know I'm crazy. I may have had a specific thought or two which I didn't say because I couldn't think of a way to say it without the common phrasing that is heard all too often and that I even did with Mattie. Weirdo! right? That passes as I continue with the blessing. More thoughts are filling my head but I had to turn off the spiritual spigot when I started to choke up. I know I am feeling pretty close to the spirit by then because my voice got real shaky. This happened when I was younger while blessing the sacrament and doing confirmations on my mission. It also happened with Mo.

So I sit down and the first thing out of Heather's mouth was, "is he not going on a mission or getting married in the temple?" I told her, "I guess not." Just kidding! Of course he is! Just because I didn't say it doesn't mean he is doomed or will die prior to that age. The moral is, say exactly what comes to mind or your wife will question you and think your son won't grow to adulthood or go on a mission.

The weekend was great and filled with other fun times. Carrabbas on Saturday, graciously treated by Josh and Erica, was tasty. Since it was Heather's birthday she was surprised by an awesome brownie cake. For dinner on Sunday night we had Wayne’s pulled pork recipe. I had smoked it the previous Sunday throughout the night into the wee hours of Monday since I knew I wouldn't have time with friends and family on the way. I think it tasted better after having sat in the fridge a few days prior to freezing which enabled the flavors to meld beautifully. Sunday night was fun with Pop Culture Trivia Pursuit. The grandmas, Erica and Heather took Josh and Me on. Us boys got our butts kicked until we made a late and great comeback for the WIN after being down FOUR pie wedges while the ladies were stuck on "sports and games". While we were playing MoMo decided to take some pics of us and herself. The Starrs were over till near midnight when they double checked their flight itinerary. Whopsie, the flight they scheduled was a few hours prior than previously thought. They rushed back to the hotel and probably only slept a few hours before heading back to the airport. Sorry but it was fun spending the evening with you. When we go back to visit, soon hopefully, dinner is on us ok?

Thanks Bishop Draper, Josh Starr, Bishop Rivoli, Greg Paxton, Keith Berger, Travis Berger, Alex Berger, Philip Jarvis, Ben Burgoon and Mike Dahle.

False Alarm

After church today, I had to stay for our monthly YW planning meeting. Matt and I had decided instead of taking two cars to church, he would just wait around with the kids until I finished. Off I went to my meeting leaving Mattie and Reddin with Matt. We got done with the training portion of our meeting and split up into class presidencies to do our planning. There I was planning with my Beehives, and all of a sudden I hear a loud noise along with a automated voice telling us to exit the building. I tell the girls to gather their stuff and we head outside. As I am walking out the side door I am trying to think if there are any other young children at church still besides my daughter, and I say out load, "Oh please tell me that was not my child that pulled the alarm." I go back into the church and cross over to the other foyer to find Matt and the kids. I say the same thing to him, and he indeed confirms my fear. It was Mattie who pulled the alarm! I ask her why, and she goes and hides under the pew in the chapel. I pull her out and tell her we need to go outside. When we get outside, everyone knows that it is Mo who pulled the alarm. Most are happy to have gotten out of their meetings early, but poor Mattie is so embarrassed. I take her back inside to Matt, who is trying to assist the Bishop in resetting the alarm. The firemen come, and I apologize to a very nice fireman. He tells us that it happens all of the time and that its ok. I have Mattie on my lap and I am trying to explain what it was that she pulled and why we don't pull it. And when the fireman speaks to her, she loses it and starts crying hysterically. She starts begging to go outside to the car and leave. Matt takes her out and I can see her jumping up and down not wanting to go back into the church. I leave Reddin with someone and go outside to tell Matt that I will take her to the car and sit with her. She clings to me and is crying so hard. I almost start crying with her, because I feel how sorry and embarrassed she is! How does a 3 year old understand these emotions so much?! We talk in the car while we wait for Matt and Reddin to come outside. She loses it again when the fire truck drives by us to leave. Finally Matt comes to the car and we leave too! Of course Mattie didn't know what the fire alarm was when she pulled it, but you better believe she does now!

Special Fireside

A couple of weeks ago, my Stake had a very special fireside. It all started with the Young Women in my ward and their love for David Archuleta! I am the 2nd counselor in the YW Presidency in my ward and the YW LOVE David. Paula Rivoli is the YW Pres in out ward, and she was able to pull off some amazing night for the girls and the rest of our Stake! She saw a picture of David with a a friend of hers', and was able to get a phone number to his pianist Richard. They were able to discuss throwing together a last minute youth fireside, since David was set to be in FL that next week. She then spoke with David's father/manager, and after making a million other phone calls, the fireside came was came together on Saturday night! They announced the fireside that morning throughout our Stake, and I thought the girls would die of excitement. Paula introduced me to Richard, David's pianist, and then invited me to the fireside, since I serve in YW. They left right after sacrament to go and meet David and his father at her house!

That night I drove one of our yw, who had been investigating our church, to the stake center. David put on a wonderful fireside. He started out singing my favorite hymn, "Be Still My Soul". It was so incredibly beautiful! He had only ever done one other fireside, so he was very nervous and he rambled a little, but he was so cute, and it was so great for the youth to hear his testimony! He closed his remarks with singing "I Know That My Redeemer Lives". After the fireside there was a meet and greet in the cultural hall. Our girls waited in line for quite sometime to meet David, but when it was finally their turn, they were so overjoyed! We were able to get a picture of all of us with David. Paula introduced me to David, and I decided to get my picture with him. I thanked him for taking time to talk to the youth and for being such a great example. And then I just couldn't help myself, I had to hug him and tell him that I thought he was "such a cutie patootie"!  I told him that I could say that because I'm so much older than him and married with kids! It was a fun and spiritual night. (Sorry Christina, if I had known you were such a big fan I would have gotten his autograph for you!)