A fun Father's Day

So far this Dad gig isn't too bad.  

Breakfast in bed (Ann will have to tell you the secret of the swirls):

Head massages:
Although you do have to watch out for breakfast pirates:

She wasn't my present, but she enjoyed the paper

Thanks Ann, and MD, for a great Father's Day.

My Dad has taught me a lot over the years, here are just a few lessons:

-After about three years in one place its time to move on

-Anything over mild sauce is unpalatable (Ann made fun of me when we first met so I had to up my spicy tolerance)

-All you need are the first two lines of the BYU fight song chorus (woken up by it every Saturday morning)

-White water rafting is more fun with crocodiles in the water

-God, Family, Country

-Be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly...

-Minuteman, always be ready with a scripture, a story, and a testimony.

Happy Father's Day

Thank you for your continual sacrifices on our behalf

Speechless (although the text below suggests otherwise)

I just finished the Kite Runner.  I am still trying to figure out how I feel about it.  I think heavy and depressed are close.  Its been a while since a book that has had such an emotional impact on me.

The good things: Hassan (a character).  The book gave me a lot more perspective, and respect (in some ways), about some of the culture of Afghanistan.  The prose is direct and unflinching.  He tells the story.  I felt very attached and repulsed to/by the characters.  I appreciate the indirect and direct attention to forgiveness, and how necessary it is because of our humanity.  It is possible to accept and love people and not their sins.

The bad things: Bad things happened to the melodramatic level.  After the suicide attempt I just skimmed the rest to see what happened at the end because I was frustrated with bad thing after bad thing happening.  I don't like those movies that have characters just missing each other when its important that they meet, or making abnormally stupid decisions on which the entire plot rests upon.

Swearing, rape, suicide attempt.  I think shockingly bad things like these are trendy now and could have been replaced or omitted.  However, I did see some symbolism to the situation in Afghanistan and these negative events.  

Conclusion: I still feel like I took a hit to the gut so its too soon to say.  A well-written and moving work.  I read that the author works for the UN helping refugees; I think this book is educational for those of us in a more stable region of the world.  I don't mind something like this every now and then but I just like to see the good guys win, ideally without such gritty conflicts to overcome. 

Moses 7:28, 37

And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people, and he wept; ...wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer?

Those verses sum it up pretty well.

Any thoughts?  

Update

We've been busy.

A sexy haircut, you were all thinking it, so I said it.  I wish you could see it in person.  Wow is all I can say, over and over again. 

A much appreciated gift

I'm her new toy.  By the way that was my second time through that book and I don't recommend it.  I really like the idea but a lot of fluff and swearing.

She was so tired on our DC trip she stayed like this for at least half an hour

We crossed boundaries at the Hirschorn (?) Museum with Ashley and Eli

A trip to the zoo

Just hanging out

PS - The Rihanna song is a shout out to my bon qui quis ridin dirty out there! (translation - Karlie and Katie, otherwise they just turn my music off when they look at my blog)