Family Home Emergency Room

I've spent the last two Monday's in the emergency room with a different kid. I joked with the nurse if we kept this up we'd be bringing in the baby next week. She told me I'd better not. Had the same doctor each time. Its fun doing this stuff when the power of attorney hasn't arrived yet. Doable, just more interesting.

Really, one of these days I'm going to get around to blogging about the sword of laban and its possible interpretations as a cultural symbol and how that relates to the concept of religious freedom as practiced in the Book of Mormon. But lately I've been a bit busy.

Smarter than Einstein

So, the other night I was teaching my niece and nephew from 1st Nephi chapter 4 and trying to discuss the meaning of the chapter a little more. Ulysses (code name) asked if scriptures were important because God is smarter than we are. I answered that God is smarter than everyone. The kids then asked what I meant by everyone. Bonnie Jean and I explained that everyone meant everyone. The next question was if God was smarter than Einstein. I answered yes. That idea seemed to blow Ulysses's mind. And this was on a night he hadn't been seeming to pay attention. For all the work we've put in the last few days, there are very precious moments scattered around.

In other matters I was noticing for the first time how unique a document the brass plates would have been. First, keep in mind that it is pre printing press days. Then keep in mind that before Ezra copies of the law were something only priests had. Then keep in mind the brass plates held an account up to the commencement of the reign of King Zedekiah, who only rules for 11 years so this history has to be up to date within the decade. Next the brass plates kept genealogical records sufficient that a random resident of the city could look himself up in them. That may not seem to be so odd given the listings of genealogy in the bible. But please to note those genealogies tended to be only of important families or lineages and such. Nothing that you could typically use to find yourself on a family group sheet. So the brass plates wwere a lot more rare of an item than we would presume.

When I have more time and am less tired I might blog on more of these subjects, but I can't even keep my eyes open right now.

I passed my oral final

So the oral final is behind me now and I passed. So unless I fail to gain experience credit during the next 8 months (or unless they lost my credits again) I should be able to graduate in April. So I am pretty happy.

Senior Thesis

So after all my hard work you can finally view my senior thesis.

War Powers Paper


Enjoy!

Children

Long story short, Bonnie Jean and I will be taking care of 3 children very soon. My sister in law needed a place for them to stay for a while. This means switching wards (married student wards don't have primary) and losing my teaching calling before I got to give a single lesson. It also means a crash coarse in parenting techniques across a range of ages. I'll actually change a diaper for the first time in my life.

For the short story long: go here. For those unfamiliar with my wife's blog code names are in use.

Thankfully, the move in crew doesn't show up till the day after my oral final exam. But, unfortunately, this is all still happening just when I need time to focus on graduating. Crisis like to happen during finals at school. Just something I've noticed.

Senior Thesis submitted

So on Friday I finally submitted my senior thesis. It's a good thing it was practically done before that because nobody bothered telling me until Wednesday that it was due Friday. So Bonnie Jean and I stayed up till midnight to one in the morning both Wednesday and Thursday nights getting it into shape grammar wise and standardizing all the citations into MLA handbook standard format. So on Friday all I had to do was edit the title page slightly and take it over to staples to be bound. So happy days are near. If I can pass an oral final by the end of the month, I'll be practically ready to graduate.

Calling

So, I've been called to serve as a Sunday School teacher again, official as of today. I am very happy about this. Will give me more ways to connect to the ward members and a fun opportunity to increase my skills. It's been my favorite calling so far. I hope I keep it longer this time, we've been informed a ward boundary change is in the works again.