Sunday, November 23rd, by Warren Smith

Today, they called two new Sunday School teachers. That means that I am no longer needed as a substitute. Sad. But, that meant that I was able to attend primary. Emily is a jewel. Last night we were up until past midnight reading. I asked her what she needed to do for primary today. Her response was, "Just prepare a singing time." That sounded simple enough. She drew a large turkey cutout with songs names and dozens of cutout feathers. The children were playing a pin-the-feather-on-the-turkey-to-pick-the-next-song game. When did she do that?!? Is there some slow-down-time-so-that-I-can-create-a-cool-craft-for-primary machine that I don't know about? If there is, I totally want to know about it.

After church, we came home to see HOWARD! It's been a great day. Right now he's out with Leah, who is teaching him how to drive. Howard just got his motorcycle license in Texas, but it turns out that you need a normal driver's license first. No problem. They just gave him a normal driver's license. (Without an exam.) He doesn't know how to drive, of course, so Leah is teaching him now. (In defense of the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, they did put a restriction on his license that someone 21 years or older needs to be in the car.)

Lately, Diana is showing motherly tendencies. By that I mean, she wants to be the one feeding other people and holding the tissue to other people's noses. Today, when we were putting her to bed, she opened a drawer and found a bottle of skin lotion. Then she insisted on putting it in my mouth like a bottle over and over again. That was cute. Then she learned to take the cap off. I had to draw the line somewhere, and globs of pink skin lotion in my mouth seemed as good a line as any other.

Have you ever wanted to improve your Scottish? Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrCMB7N5V1s

Costco

Diana really likes to push the cart. It's adorable. She can't see where she's going, of course, and we have to steer it for her, but she can push the cart for many many baby minutes. Sometimes we can't stop to look at something - at least not both of us - because the cart must go on. The best we can do is try to loiter. That didn't work too well today because Costco was so busy.

Emily and I went for a little run. Very little. Emily told me that the prime running ages are 25-35! The last few days it has inspired my curiosity, but not my feet. Are my best running days still ahead of me? Maybe even years ahead of me? It seems so hopeful. A delightful thought.

If you need something else to read or watch: http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/commentary/same-sex-marriage-and-proposition-8

A love story

Yesterday was my parent's 32nd wedding anniversary. We all (Mom, Dad, Emily, Diana, and I) went out to eat. It was fun listening to them tell us their story again. For those of you who haven't heard it, I'll give you some of the highlights. Mom was born and bred in Vietnam. Dad in New York. In 1975, Dad joined the army reserves and Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese - causing Mom and her family to flee. Lot's of things happened in between Vietnam and a refugee camp in Washington DC, but those details are for the epic version. As a reservist, dad was doing his two weeks of service when he was transferred to the refugee camp to supervise the education. Using a "computer" (it was "programmed" with index cards) he found a list of Vietnamese people who were qualified to help with camp education. Mom came out on top of the list. That's how they met.

Skipper's log, 11-20

Last night we had pizza. Emily made it. I like Emily's pizza. It had pepperoni. Diana likes it too.

Emily and Diana went to the library for story time. Diana watched the other kids and danced. I was not actually there, but I'm sure it was cute.

Em took out a book on running. I realize that I've never read a book on running. After all these years of running, I never learned anything, but by experience and what other runners would tell me. Some of that information is conflicting too. Like when is it bad to run with pain? And when is it necessary to improve?

Last night, I was able to visit the Monter family. They're my hometeachees and they are GREAT! Brother Monter was just ordained an Elder on Sunday. It's is very exciting. Sister Monter's friend asked her a question that she passed on to me. I now pass that question on to you: Why does God let innocent children suffer?

Captain's blog, stardate 11-18

Welcome to the Smith Family's blog. My name is Emily, and I will be guiding you through the first post. Please note the bright orange background color of the blog. That is in honor of Thanksgiving. In general, orange is a hideous color, but when used to honor Thanksgiving, it acquires an element of the sacred.

The Smith Family is planning to spend this Thanksgiving at home in Tucson. Warren's brothers are flying in to visit us, and hopefully Joseph as well... We'll be doing a lot of over-eating and much too little exercising. Well, that's my plan. More will be forthcoming.

Warren still doesn't have cancer. And I might not either! At least not anymore. We'll see after the c-t scan on Friday.

Oh, and I think Diana's a mutant. She's growing much faster than a regular human being should.

She was bitten by a dog last week, but luckily it was only a mean little mexican chihuahua. As far as I can tell, there was no lasting physical trauma.

Well that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed it--romance, action, and a great moral. Join us next time for another Smith Family adventure.