On this the 17th day of March, while the world celebrates a hokey and commercialized holiday (although let's be real--who actually celebrates St. Patrick's day), we in the Stone family celebrate a much more momentous occasion--the birth of our dad--John Stone Sr.!
Happy Birthday dad. We love you and are honored to call you father. I can honestly attribute most of my success to you (and mom of course) and your example of hard work, unconditional love, patience, and service. I saw the way you treat mom, and by mirroring those same actions I was able to win and keep the heart of my lovely wife Michelle. I saw how you loved, taught, motivated and disciplined us as children and now use those same strategies to care for the children where I work. I saw you teach the gospel in and out of our home and now teach the gospel and academic topics with confidence and passion. Thank you for sharing yourself with us, for making time for us, and for being a righteous patriarch. Hope your birthday is fun...and traditionally filled with peanuts, Snapple, and golf tees.
Monday, March 17, 2014
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Moab, April '13
We stayed at a HUGE campground by the river. It's essentially a ton of acres with sporadic bathrooms. You find an ideal place, and stake your claim. We, unfortunately, picked a space across from a bunch of foul-mouthed, trashy drunkards who are impressively on their way to cirrhosis and death, among other miscellaneous injuried (in a drunken stupor our second night, they set fire to a soccer ball which they proceeded to kick around the dry scrub, and then burned their couch to the ground). The police were called, but a lone, unprepared representative of the law was the only result, and he was unprepared to adequately confront the 20 partiers. He left them with a warning.
Other than my excessive disdain for the raunch and misfortune of our fellow-campers, the trip was really great. We planned and packed some great food (hobo dinners, dutch oven chicken, breakfast burritos, apple cobbler...), and got to see most of the arches on our priority list. I think the pictures do a pretty good job of conveying the trip. The changing colors of the rock in the shifting sun, the sheer grandeur of the stone and landscape, the flora and fauna, were all breathtaking.
Oh, but the very last picture? We never did manage to get the balancing rock to "balance" on our heads. Dang.
I sure do love my manfriend.
Wall Street
My mom's camera accidentally got put on a weird setting. It made for some entertaining photos.
Of Fathers and Parenting (Re-Post)
Original post found here.
As Garrett and I have planned and discussed how we want to raise our children, my thoughts have come back to this post I wrote last year (before we were married. Or even engaged... back when I put more thought and frequency into blogging. My contributions to this blog are appallingly lackluster!). As I've come to know and cherish Garrett ever increasingly, I feel he comes to represent all (and more!) that I was looking for in a companion and co-parent. Without further ado...
Over the past year or so I've contemplated writing a post on Fathers. Clearly I either felt inadequate, hesitant, or just not collected enough to do so (my thoughts are likely still not very collected and coordinated, but this post is coming anyway!)
While preparing for the lesson I am teaching this Sunday, I stumbled upon this gem:
*Happy sigh. This video made me smile and want to pump my arms in the air in a most victorious manner.
Things about this portrayal of fatherhood and parenthood that I love:
Children have a desire to learn. Their world is so fascinating and so many opportunities are available to teach them, to explore, and to make connections. Life is crazy and messy and glorious. It is important that fathers take part in this process, to be a friend and a guardian for their children. Almost anything can be a fun adventure if embarked upon with an appropriate sense of adventure and eagerness (including chores, homework, and eating vegetables!). One of the responsibilities of parents is to foster this sense of exploration and eagerness to learn and experience a variety of things.
I read a blog post awhile ago that also made me want to do a victory pump. It further discusses deliberate parenting: A Curious Mother and a Library Card (also note how awesome the Every Day Learners are!)
Amen! I think so many parents get into the mentality that they are just watching or "baby-sitting" their children; distantly providing the necessities. False! There are so many neat opportunities to learn and explore with your children, to involve them and be involved, to connect knowledge and activities, to help them regulate their emotions and actions and to learn from mishaps and mistakes, to let them see and understand their world, to bake things, make messes, clean them up, to learn of creation and miracles and their Heavenly Father (pardon that run-on sentence...). Anything and everything can be fun and worthwhile if it's made into an adventure. And yes, of course, it can sometimes be exhausting... 'Tis the nature of our mortal bodies and the process of learning and growth.
I also love how he talks of being a co-provider and partner with his wife; they are a team as they provide for the faceted needs of their family. This requires communication, patience, flexibility, love, and intention. Both parents fill very important roles (occasionally these roles merge or need to be filled by the other, thus requiring flexibility and communication!), and it takes planning and coordination to ensure that the needs of each member in the household are being met.
And lastly, I love how this video connects our roles in mortality to our potential to become like our Heavenly Father. I believe that fathers especially can have such a profound sense of the eternities, progression, and divine fatherhood, just as mothers can likewise learn and experience a similar sense of profundity as they too acquire God-like traits and better understand their divine nature and the role and qualities of our Heavenly Mother. When we examine and explore the relationship we can have with our divine parents, truly understand how close and loving that connection can be, we are softened and filled with wonder, awe, and gratitude at the small miracles we witness. We, even as mortal adults, become as little children as we grow more sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Ghost and increase our desire to continue learning and growing. For, even as adults, there is still so much to yet be learned, to apply, to discover and understand. Our Heavenly Father (and Mother!) are very aware of us, provide for us, enlighten us, love us, help us see and connect things of eternal worth to what may so often seem irrelevant and mortal.
By golly, the Lord sure is good to us!
As Garrett and I have planned and discussed how we want to raise our children, my thoughts have come back to this post I wrote last year (before we were married. Or even engaged... back when I put more thought and frequency into blogging. My contributions to this blog are appallingly lackluster!). As I've come to know and cherish Garrett ever increasingly, I feel he comes to represent all (and more!) that I was looking for in a companion and co-parent. Without further ado...
Over the past year or so I've contemplated writing a post on Fathers. Clearly I either felt inadequate, hesitant, or just not collected enough to do so (my thoughts are likely still not very collected and coordinated, but this post is coming anyway!)
While preparing for the lesson I am teaching this Sunday, I stumbled upon this gem:
*Happy sigh. This video made me smile and want to pump my arms in the air in a most victorious manner.
Things about this portrayal of fatherhood and parenthood that I love:
Children have a desire to learn. Their world is so fascinating and so many opportunities are available to teach them, to explore, and to make connections. Life is crazy and messy and glorious. It is important that fathers take part in this process, to be a friend and a guardian for their children. Almost anything can be a fun adventure if embarked upon with an appropriate sense of adventure and eagerness (including chores, homework, and eating vegetables!). One of the responsibilities of parents is to foster this sense of exploration and eagerness to learn and experience a variety of things.
I read a blog post awhile ago that also made me want to do a victory pump. It further discusses deliberate parenting: A Curious Mother and a Library Card (also note how awesome the Every Day Learners are!)
Amen! I think so many parents get into the mentality that they are just watching or "baby-sitting" their children; distantly providing the necessities. False! There are so many neat opportunities to learn and explore with your children, to involve them and be involved, to connect knowledge and activities, to help them regulate their emotions and actions and to learn from mishaps and mistakes, to let them see and understand their world, to bake things, make messes, clean them up, to learn of creation and miracles and their Heavenly Father (pardon that run-on sentence...). Anything and everything can be fun and worthwhile if it's made into an adventure. And yes, of course, it can sometimes be exhausting... 'Tis the nature of our mortal bodies and the process of learning and growth.
I also love how he talks of being a co-provider and partner with his wife; they are a team as they provide for the faceted needs of their family. This requires communication, patience, flexibility, love, and intention. Both parents fill very important roles (occasionally these roles merge or need to be filled by the other, thus requiring flexibility and communication!), and it takes planning and coordination to ensure that the needs of each member in the household are being met.
And lastly, I love how this video connects our roles in mortality to our potential to become like our Heavenly Father. I believe that fathers especially can have such a profound sense of the eternities, progression, and divine fatherhood, just as mothers can likewise learn and experience a similar sense of profundity as they too acquire God-like traits and better understand their divine nature and the role and qualities of our Heavenly Mother. When we examine and explore the relationship we can have with our divine parents, truly understand how close and loving that connection can be, we are softened and filled with wonder, awe, and gratitude at the small miracles we witness. We, even as mortal adults, become as little children as we grow more sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Ghost and increase our desire to continue learning and growing. For, even as adults, there is still so much to yet be learned, to apply, to discover and understand. Our Heavenly Father (and Mother!) are very aware of us, provide for us, enlighten us, love us, help us see and connect things of eternal worth to what may so often seem irrelevant and mortal.
By golly, the Lord sure is good to us!
Monday, March 3, 2014
V-Day
I made Michelle cry happy tears...thus Valentines day was a success.
Michelle: I cried many great and large happy tears. I came home to see our wedding pictures playing on the tv, large healthy oatmeal heart-shaped cookies waiting on the table, my lover man studying on the couch, a surprise large present, and the orchid plant my eternal manfriend bought me on our first-month anniversary (which I fear I am slowly killing...dang) dressed up on the counter. It only got better when I walked to the back and discovered letters my lover man wrote to me for future episodes of wardrobe/hair/body dissatisfaction, incompetence, and loneliness. Those were what actually brought the tears to the forefront. *Happy sigh. The large wrapped gift ended up being a rotary board, cutter, and edge! Which is wonderful, since I've been trying to whittle away my bin of fabric. But carpet, patterns, fabric, and scissors just don't make a highly functional team.
After I dried my Valentine's tears, we headed up to Murray where we dined (per christmas giftcard) at the cheesecake factory. Their hamburgers are pretty delicious (I helped myself to some of Garrett's). Then we headed back down to Provo and caught a showing of Frozen. We shared the theater with several geriatrics, most of whom snored in a variety of amusing ways.
All in all, it was a fantastic first "official" Valentine's day.
After I dried my Valentine's tears, we headed up to Murray where we dined (per christmas giftcard) at the cheesecake factory. Their hamburgers are pretty delicious (I helped myself to some of Garrett's). Then we headed back down to Provo and caught a showing of Frozen. We shared the theater with several geriatrics, most of whom snored in a variety of amusing ways.
All in all, it was a fantastic first "official" Valentine's day.
A Day in Paris
One of my favorite things in the world is surprising and serving one of my favorite people in the world--Michelle of course. Today our little one-bedroom apartment became a Paris Cafe. Voila!
In sum, about five hours of cutting, cooking and pastel-ing all for one thing. To make my wife smile.
Michelle: I have to confess, I'd been planning a celebratory dinner for Garrett's thesis defense. I purchased ingredients on the sly and prepared everything that morning. Halfway through the workday, Garrett sent me a text asking what I wanted for dinner, to which I responded it was already underway. After which followed a few short, mildly suspicious, and curious texts in which we ascertained we each were trying to surprise the other. Well, I think Garrett won this round! Basically I've become a big lovey weeper since I got married, because I walked in the door, saw the arrangement, and started sniffling tears of happiness. Then we got the meal preparations from that morning out, finished the cooking, and dined in the "Paris Cafe". It was lovely.
PS. 100 points for creativity, talent, and resourcefulness! I think we'd be hard-pressed to find the same quality anywhere else in Provo.
Maybe you don't recognize this fellow, but under the beret and pointy stache is a fond husband and not a Parisian artisan.
Michelle: I have to confess, I'd been planning a celebratory dinner for Garrett's thesis defense. I purchased ingredients on the sly and prepared everything that morning. Halfway through the workday, Garrett sent me a text asking what I wanted for dinner, to which I responded it was already underway. After which followed a few short, mildly suspicious, and curious texts in which we ascertained we each were trying to surprise the other. Well, I think Garrett won this round! Basically I've become a big lovey weeper since I got married, because I walked in the door, saw the arrangement, and started sniffling tears of happiness. Then we got the meal preparations from that morning out, finished the cooking, and dined in the "Paris Cafe". It was lovely.
PS. 100 points for creativity, talent, and resourcefulness! I think we'd be hard-pressed to find the same quality anywhere else in Provo.
Melting my heart one puppy at a time
Garrett: So just when you thought Utah Valley couldn't get any cooler, RENT-A-PUPPY decided to pop up in town. When I first heard of the idea of renting a puppy, my clinical mind (I work at a treatment center) immediately thought dang, these pups are going to have some hard core attachment and adjustment issues. I was a little concerned that between the Michael Vick's of the world and the all male apartment complexes in town we were going to have some headline news and scandals in Provo. And then I held one of the puppies...
Michelle: I too was worried about attachment issues with the puppies, but apparently it really helps them adapt to a variety of people, and the adoptions rates are very high. I think the animal shelter might have better luck finding homes for animals if they employed similar tactics.
Our little puppy was named Jerry (had we adopted him, I would have changed it), and was twin to ben. I think they are dachsund something mixes, so they are small and fluffy and precious. Jerry began sniff-fest 2014 when we first brought him in, and was able to fit himself between the overhang of the cabinets and the floor.
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