FUTBAWLL!

Oh hi Poe,

So what’s going on for Labor Day? We’ve had a whole bunch of blissful nothing. Well, not actually nothing but nothing planned anyway. 

Mom’s had a cold since Wednesday, a pretty bad sore throat, swollen lymph nodes, ear pressure, and even a little vertigo. But she’s tough and came to the game with me anyway. By halftime she was slumping down in her seat looking very not mom like. It was at that point I decided to break my rule of not leaving early and took her home. The game was well in hand so we didn’t miss too much. 

Speaking of the game, it was like going back in time two or three years. Rising and Kuithie looked as good as ever. Maybe better. Keep in mind though that they were playing SUU, so it was probably easier than scrimmaging against their own defense. I don’t know how many games mom and I will be going to, Artie only has two tickets. So when we can go we’ll really enjoy them, and when we can’t I’ll have my cousins over and it will be nearly as fun. There are high hopes for the season, in fact Florida State lost last week so the Utes have the potential to move up from number 12. 

I’ve been pretty stressed out at work since my team was reduced. In fact I fasted about it today. As I fast and pray, I get tiny, simple whispers of reassurance. Those are always so much softer than the raging anxiety that can grip me. But then I think of what I tell you boys, don’t trust the fear. There are actually a lot of opportunities at work, and I’m more than capable of accomplishing them, so I’ll look at my anxiety that way and accept the challenges.

I hope it’s not weird for you to hear stuff like that from your dad, but it’s something that we all face. I often think of the night before you left, how tense you were. I admire that that didn’t stop you or even make you doubt. I think that’s the constant in this test of life, to keep overcoming what scares you, to trust God, and to keep going. It’s like lifting weights or doing sprints, it just makes you stronger.

I took Friday off of work, I needed a break. I had no plans because everyone else was at work and school. I was going to do chores around the house but I didn’t. I decided to call aunt Patti and see if she wanted to go to breakfast. She did. It’s really fun to be with her. We mostly talk about what great parents we had, how much they loved us, how much they did for us, and all the things we learned from them. If you boys even have half as good of an upbringing, I will feel grateful. We often talk of how close they are to us from the other side of the veil. I feel them often and so does she. 

Since she went to the air show I asked her if she wanted to go to the air force museum. She did so I took her. I think I finally figured out why I like that place so much. It’s the combination of the powerful hardware, the history, and the dedication of the people behind all of that that make it meaningful to me. I never served in the military, but I am so grateful for those that do. Not in a corny flag waving way, but as I’ve read and heard stories and talked to the people that have served, it’s amazing to me. 

Mom went to the temple and Ben made fish fillets and tarter sauce for dinner. Yum, though I know it’s not your favorite. We just hung out and watched football after that.

Saturday we got up and your brothers and I went to go help the new next door neighbors move in. They are huge byu fans, but I didn’t raz them yet. They were pretty organized and the elders quorum had a good turnout so we got it all unloaded and in the house in about an hour.

After that mom and I went to the big Costco with aunt Patti. It’s fun to be with those two. We looked for pants for you and found some, just not in your size. We came home, got unloaded and had a slice of Costco pepperoni pizza for lunch. I can’t not think of you when I eat that. 

Your brothers had gone to the guitar and record store while we were gone. That inspired me to hook up my red, homemade speakers in the movie room. I had hooked up my turntable to the movie system several weeks ago and it sounded decent. I’ve gotten the itch to build another set of speakers, but this time high, high end. Which means audiophile level speakers, which means expensive even if I do build them myself. So I brought my red towers in and tried to hook them up to the movie system. No dice, I thought it had outputs for a second set of speakers, but no go. So I got out the receiver I had in the old music room and got it all connected. I turned it on and wow! The volume was set high and it sounded amazing. Noticeably better than the movie speakers for music. I still have some tweaks and adjustments to make, but for now it’s probably better and cheaper to have two separate systems in the same room. I’m really enjoying being back into music. And I still want to build the big speakers, but that needs to be a longer term goal.

While we’re on the subject of music. Ben had a windfall of a refund from tuition because a scholarship came through. So he bought some new pickups for his guitar. I helped him install them, well, I did the soldering. But we must have messed something up or they must not have been compatible with the components that came with the guitar. More on this in a second.

Later we met my family for a picnic out in Copperton. That’s a small town at the base of the copper mine. It’s kinda like going back in time. We were going to get kfc but mom had bought a Costco chicken and made a homemade loaf of bread so she made us tasty sandwiches. It was fun to hang out with everyone. My side is so much more calm than mom’s side.

On the way home we went back to the guitar center to see if they had a compatible switch for Ben’s new pickups, they didn’t. So to console ourselves we stopped by a new baskin Robbin’s in Draper. That is my favorite ice cream.

The byu game was on when we got home but they were winning so we found no fun in watching it.

Today was fast Sunday at church. I did a selfish fast and fasted about my job. There wasn’t tons of people there so when the testimony part started, nobody got up for a while. Normally I know before hand when I’m going to get up, but this time I got up with no idea of what I was going to say, so I just bore my testimony of God, the Savior, and the gospel. I hope it made some sense. We were going to have our gospel essentials class, but the new member and her friend weren’t at church. So I waited in front of the bishops office for a few minutes to make sure nobody showed. When they didn’t, I snuck out the door to go see mom who finally stayed home to rest.

I spent the afternoon messing around with my AV equipment and doing some simple stuff for my calling. Tonight there was a rare Sunday night college football game on. USC vs LSU. I was surprised to find myself routing for USC. I guess since we’ll never play them again and having established our dominance over them, it fun to see them beat up on other, so called, powerhouse teams.

Ben had ordered a new guitar switch overnight, Amazon is freaking amazing man, so we got that installed tonight. From the sound of it, it worked.

Well kiddo, this letter was long and mundane. So if you stuck with it this far, thank you. I look forward to catching up tomorrow. We’re around, well, Jacob has to work, but call when you can.

Love you, pops.