new feature...!

so, i've given in. lately i have seen many blogs and websites with playlists. amy and i have found new music this way and have enjoyed hearing what others are interested in (amy made me download a michael buble song the other day--and who knows how to pronounce his name.) however, i know that dad risenmay would never visit our site again if it started blaring music when the page finishes uploading...

the big reason i decided to add the playlist is that it gives a cool chance to share music ideas without requiring you who are reading a music review to purchase the music first. it also makes it easy for you to scroll over and click on the player to sample the wares.

as many of you know, i gave a review of the killers a few months back. so i threw a few of my favorites on the end of the playlist.

however, today i want to highlight another band to whom i have been listening quite a bit. now, the nyc hipsters may snicker because it feels cliche that i choose this band or that they have been enjoying this band for years, but i will give the review undaunted by that possibility.

death cab for cutie is the band i wanted to mention (you hadn't noticed from the large photo at the top?) these guys are great. i have found that on a day when i need to unwind or de-stress from rough times i can turn on death cab's plans album and just float into pleasant oblivion...and come away refreshed afterward.

give it a try...

[oh, the player is on the sidebar below the page links.]

naptime with dad...

this is how the girls nap when dad's in charge...i guess i just don't have that feminine touch?

I'll Follow Him in Faith...

Sorry to take down Paul's exciting experience... but life moves on...

Yesterday was the Children's Sacrament Meeting Program in our ward. Our Sunbeam was quite excited to give his part and sing the songs. He did both very well. Here is the part he said, with confidence and a twinkle in his eye, in the program yesterday morning...




His favorite song was "I'll Follow Him in Faith." ... mine, too.

I was called to be a counselor in the primary presidency back in... June I think. One of my responsibilities is the this primary program, which I was really excited about.

Until I got the down-low. I guess back in the day the program was written by the General Primary Presidency and distributed throughout the church. The primary presidency assigned the parts to primary kiddos. No longer. When I realized I was in charge of all the writing, etc. of the program, I got a little less excited about being in charge of it. After being in the primary for a short time, I was quickly impressed with the testimonies, the understanding, and the simple faith of the children. I quickly decided that, instead of writing the program myself and having the kiddos recite my testimony/understanding of the gospel, I would outline the program and have the kids write their own parts. Instead of assigning them parts, I gave them open-ended questions.

The process was much more laborious, I am sure, than if I had written it all myself. But it was beautiful to see the children become invested and attached to their parts and talks. They were able to talk about things that were important to them, and shared personal experiences that were touching and sweet. It was such a rewarding process for me to see each child express a their personal testimonies of Christ with confidence.

Yes, Michael decided on his own what to say, as well.

And although I would have given my right arm to fly Libby out to be our music leader (good luck with your program coming up, Libs)... the songs went really well, too.

I love Primary! Let us know how your ward primary programs go...

especially Brinlee-boo's.

moonlighting at its best...

well, amy and i are trying to wade through the cost of living in california...

after receiving my medical license, i got my first paying gig this past week. the event was great for promotion of men's health, i was paid, and i received the opportunity to sharpen my digital rectal examination (dre) skills.

i know all my family members who are looking for free health care will be glad i offer this service...

all joking aside, i was happy to be a part of this service. i was at thor industries--an rv production company that provides this free screening for prostate cancer as a service to all its employees who are interested. they offer the prostate specific antigen test (blood test) and the digital rectal examination (no explanation needed?). it was not uncommon for men to decline the dre after their blood test. i met some great people (many low income, hispanic factory workers).

we were also able to take a tour of the factory which was fascinating. these three warehouses are an assembly line with hundreds of hispanic workers who are creating mini-houses. they handle the shells, the plumbing, the electric wiring, the decorating...you name it and they pretty much create it there on the floor of the warehouse. these are some serious rvs.

so anyway, that's how i spent my wednesday morning...how 'bout you?

inoculation...

as a result of the recent podcasts over at mormon matters, i've been thinking about inoculation...

what if you'd been a mormon all your life and a good non-mormon friend of yours asked you if it were true that joseph smith was involved in treasure seeking with neighbors and family prior to finding his gold bible? would you deny it as false? to whom would you turn if you'd never heard this idea before? what if your bishop reassured you it was false and that your friend must be persecuting you because of satan's desire to tear down the church? would you google joseph smith to find the answer? would you read lucy mack smith's history? and which version of her history would you read?

there are many who learn troubling parts of church history later in life despite lifetime membership in the church. with each troubling idea discovered, every person reacts differently. some may say the church has deceived them and lose trust. many dismiss the ideas as 'anti-mormon' and therefore false. others may be motivated to learn all there is to know and reconcile new ideas with former misconceptions. i think there are many reasons why there are aspects of church history that many twenty-somethings in the church have never heard. and i feel that many of these reasons are not sinister, but understandable and circumstantial.

here are a few thoughts.

hagiography: A worshipful or idealizing biography...in the 19th century and well into the 20th century it was common to use a biography as a tool for praise and persuasion. many of the biographies written about prominent leaders at the time omitted inconsistencies and troubling facts. it was a well accepted genre of writing and mormon authors were not immune to this tendency when writing about each other. with the tendency in mormon culture to show deference to tradition and authority it is not surprising that when contemporary historians began deconstructing inconsistencies in revered mormon biographies that there was resistance on many levels of the church hierarchy.

some information about church history was not common knowledge until after the 1960's. that would mean that most of the aged and lay priesthood and relief society leaders would never have been taught these historical facts. and since our general authorities are not professional historians and are very busy in their ministry, it is probably unreasonable to expect them to be informed regarding lastest new mormon historical finding. also, when new historical research is written, it is important to treat the information with some dispassionate distance since what is true today may be overturned in 10 years by yet to be discovered source material.

in light of these ideas, it is uncharitable at best and spiritually detrimental at worst to lay blanket blame at the feet of all church leaders for facts they too may not be aware of.

as new information came out in the 60's and 70's it was probably true that some at the highest level of church leadership chose to suppress access to church records because the troubling source material seemed peripheral to the church's mission to teach the fundamentals of the gospel and to lead people to christ. however, in the google age it is hard for any information to stay undiscovered for long.

so here we are in 2007. whatever barriers there have been to open discussion and discovery of difficult historical facts in the past, there seems to be trend towards a more progressive approach to disseminating more complete information in the church--see the church's issuance over the pulpit of encouragement to watch the pbs documentary. see the recent ensign article about the moutain meadows massacre. and the list goes on. a powerful, faithful source for discussion of many of the troubling mormon historical facts is found in rough stone rolling--a favorite of mine--and easily found at your local deseret book.

inoculation is what happens when you receive a vaccine. small doses of the infection are injected into your body. your body receives a small enough dose that your body can grapple with and defeat the infection without experiencing severe illness and/or death. the idea is mormondom is that you inject small doses of troubling church history in a safe environment (3rd hour of church, seminary, institute etc) and allow members of the group to grapple with and come to terms with the ideas.

so what are your thoughts? what historical church fact troubles you (if any) and how old were you when you learned about it? do you wish you had learned certain facts earlier in your life? if so, at what age? how have you reconciled troubling new ideas? would these troubling facts cease to be troubling as they become widely held knowledge with a construct for understanding their implications? i have really enjoyed my recent mormon historical studies and feel that my testimony has deepened and that i approach life from a healthier place...

Animal Soup...

Sunday Afternoon Activity: Making Animal Soup.

This is what Michael did all Sunday afternoon.






Hope all is well with all of you, and that your wounds are healing from the BYU loss to Tulsa last night. Paul got home around 3:30am, proceeded to watch the game (skipping the time between plays) and crawled into bed around 5am only to wake up at 8:30 to come to church and sleep through sacrament meeting (while awaking now and then to help Bekah with a toy), herd Sunbeams during the primary practice, teach a lesson to the priests, back home for lunch and to bed by 1pm and back to work by 4pm. After several days of a hard schedule, he deserves his day off tomorrow.

brave new world...

my favorite cougar fan...

*****game report at the end of this post*****

you may or may not know that byu plays ucla tomorrow in the rose bowl on national television. well, now you know. but tonight, michael and i heard from bronco mendenhall that the most important event of the players' weekend happened at a chapel in glendale california. the event was the fireside attended by cecil samuelson, bronco mendenhall and 50 or so byu players including most of the starters. i heard about these firesides last year when bronco implemented them on the eve of every game during the year. i have been wanting to take part in this very unique cultural phenomenon since their implementation...

our evening began with a drive to glendale california. michael sat in the back seat and studied up.


the fireside was really nice. it wasn't a 'bear testimony of football'-fest that i was worried it might be. two returned missionary non-starters got up and gave football anecdotes that they then paralleled with the gospel and obedience. it was really fun to hear these muscled young men bear testimony of christ and the power of his atonement in their lives. what a unique football program. what a unique cultural experience. where else in the world can you pack a church (chapel and cultural hall--we're talking more people than i've ever seen at a non-byu student stake conference) to standing room only with youth and their families on a friday night to talk about religion?

the whole team stood to sing army of helaman. four of the boys--including criddle and semanoff--sang in a quartet.

bronco's wife spoke as did bronco. his speech became very personal toward the end. he talked about how he wasn't sure he wanted to be coach again this year after last years successes. he spoke of the night before two-a-days began. he said he confronted an obstacle that night that he wasn't sure he would get past (reminiscent of joseph in the grove). he called his dad for a blessing at 5 am before heading to the first day of practice. on arrival at the office he found a package from sheri dew. it contained two books--what else? one was 'armour' by kim clark (president of byui) which gave an account of an experience he had after being made president of harvard business school and an overwhelming obstacle he confronted one night (which bronco described as very similar to his own experience) wherein he ended the struggle by crawling to his knees and calling on the lord for strength. what powerful images of these strong, dedicated men being brought to their knees by the pressure of their jobs and finding answers through prayer and the help of those around them.

the event wasn't the most spiritual event i have attended, but it was uplifting to take part in. i appreciated the feelings of confirmation i felt as testimony was born and these young boys committed publicly to live gospel principles and the importance of living as examples where ere thou art.

after the closing prayer i was trepidatious in my desire to allow michael interactions with the players. i didn't know if the players would be wanting to head straight out without being bothered or not. come to find out, a big part of the event is the chance to talk and mingle with the players afterwards. michael had been hoping max hall would speak and so i steered to him first. max is the starting quarterback, yet a first year player and may not be super well recognized by many. michael had been studying and so we found max alone in the foyer and i told him michael had been hoping to hear from him. max was really fun with him as he asked for a strong five and handshake. you can see michael's reaction below.




here is the picture michael mentioned. i'm sure you all have fui vakapuna's jersey number memorized...but just in case, he wears #1.


after speaking with fui and max we meandered back to the cultural hall and i'll let michael tell you about his interaction with the coach...



so, the event tonight brings michael's fanship full circle.

fall of 2005:



fall of 2006:


thanks for reading. and go cougars.

*****game-day*****

i ran out of time to write...so here are some pictures.

we lost.

we should have won.

the referees struggled.

blaming the referee's is never the whole answer.

there is a lot of traffic around the rose-bowl on game days.

jonny gave us play by play on the phone hanging from my shirt till we got inside the stadium...thank you jonny.

the 3rd quarter was heaven.

thanks to terry for watching our kids for so long...

The routine of things...

Hello everyone. Just wanted to show you some of the latest doings in our home. Life is in a pretty steady routine now that Michael's preschool schedules are regular. Although the girls have been sick (pretty sad coughs and fevers that have been coming and going), they have kept me smiling. Paul's schedule is never "routine"... but he makes his time home very good. I love my life, and here are some of the things that have made me smile lately...

Our neighbor, Karen, was here for dinner on Sunday night. I was finishing the preparations, when Karen walked around the corner and found this...



Another good reason to keep the bathroom door closed.

Abby is our dress up queen. She pulls out all the hats, necklaces, glasses, etc. (I need to acquire a better dress-up collection...) and is always switching her ensemble. She feels special and it is really cute.


Michael loves combining two of his favorite worlds... sports and dancing. I guess singing is usually part of the package, as well. Here is a little taste, put to the tune of one of my personal favorites. (Paul, the cameraman, loves to dance to this one, too... as you can tell by the shaky camerawork!)



And whenever Bekah hears a beat, she's dancing...



This one comes from our San Diego trip... but I'm still smiling about Paul's hula hooping attempts. There was a crowd of older ladies behind him who got a few good laughs, too.



Oh, and one other thing. Ever since Paul got new glasses in August, he's been a little disappointed about the complete absence of comments he has gotten as he goes about his daily routine... has no one even noticed?? I try to reassure him that it is a good thing that people aren't overly aware of his glasses. But he still wonders... what do YOU think??