Crystal Cove

 Here are some pictures from the middle of our fall break trip to California. We drove to Mesquite Wednesday at 3 and got there in time to try out the pool.and arcade. Nikki and Clint met up with us and we swapped out Tziporah for Freestone. I am so grateful they were willing to take an extra kid so we didn't have to fly anyone. Also grateful that they informed us that the mythical $27 hotel rooms you see billboards for...are real. We even got two rooms in Mesquite! That's almost enough beds for everyone!

 Thursday we left Mesquite at 5 am and spent the post-drive day at Oceanside with the cousins. Jeff and Richelle, Grandma and Grandpa and the Arizona Dopps were there. We all loved the family time, but since we hadn't planned this trip with the fam, we were staying 45 minutes away in Newport.

We spent Friday and Saturday at the beach and pools in Newport, then met the family for a beach bonfire in Oceanside Saturday night. That was so much fun. The cousins get along so well. I found out recently that they all have a chat going and text each other all the time. I love it!

Sunday, we got up early to relax. We didn't want to leave. The Marriott Villas were luxurious. The reason we stayed there was that I got roped into this timeshare presentation deal, where they give you the Newport Villas for $99 a night if you do the presentation. Scott and I had fun sting through the schpiel, but there's no way we would pay $20,000 plus $1500 a year to be part of a club. They don't understand how cheaply we travel. Speaking of which, we just booked flights to Amsterdam for Ruby, Scott and me for $330 Roundtrip on United. I think some fares are still available today to Europe. Search for them on Whichairline.com. I wish we could take the whole family.

And that's why Newport was so fun, because we were all together. We loved every minute. One great thing about the Villas is that there are fun activities for the kids. Their favorite thing about the trip was the arcade. Sad but oh well! As long as they're happy!

Turning the Page

What a fun weekend!  Scott took Tziporah to Park City Friday night for a special date. Meanwhile, Ruby and I had a recital of our students, and there was some Nutcracker and ballet classes until late, and a wild and crazy school carnival. Saturday morning, Nutcracker pictures started at 7 am and continued, with each kid having a different time slot throughout the day, interspersed with ballet classes and whatnot.  Frank was laughing at me as I walked in and out of the house, dropping off one kid and getting another one prepped for pics.  With Ruby and Araceli at the studio, I had to do Xanthe's French twist all by myself.  Wah!  I'm so spoiled, having all these helpers. Speaking of which, with Scott gone, I had to scrap Araceli's youth symphony rehearsal. She would have been an hour late because of pictures, and I wouldn't have had time to get home in time to turn around and leave again for Freestone's rehearsal. So she was able to not worry about rushing through fun Nutcracker pictures. Bernstein and Brahms will have to wait until next week.

 My class, the Chinese.

 Cute little Page.

I peeked in at Freestone in class.

Scott and Tziporah had driven to Springville to visit a pumpkin patch. Tizzy was in heaven having her favorite parent all to herself!  Scott and I were sending pictures back and forth of our respective activities and talking about what to do next.  Our tentative plan was for me and Freestone to meet Scott and Tizzy back in PC after Freestone's Nutcracker practice in Salt Lake.  Then Scott texted me, "Change of plans.  Call me."

Little did I know, that was the understatement of the year.  Scott told me, "I got a call from the stake president and he wants us to come in at 3:30."  I held my phone away from my ear so I could glower at it and shouted, "WHAT?!?"  Knowing we were getting a new bishopric the next day, we both knew what this meant. Scott drove home, and when I got home from Salt Lake, he was getting his white shirt and tie on.  I dressed up and we went.  The first thing President Mellor did was to invite me into his office.  He said, "First off, we need your permission and blessing to extend this call to your husband."  He explained that it would be difficult for me as well as Scott.  I had no hesitation saying yes.  I knew it was right.  That didn't stop my internal voice from bawling, "How are we going to do this??"

They called Scott in, and then informed us that the rest of the bishopric was waiting for us in the next room.  Surreal! We walked through the door, anxious to see who was in there! I was so happy when I saw Jerry and Sally Taylor. I love them. Bishop Wuthrich was just beaming, and Maria. It was a neat moment. I have never experienced anything like it. They said that we all might be asked to bear our testimonies or just speak for a few minutes in sacrament meeting the next day. I am a terrible public speaker, and I didn't want to babble if I had to say a few words, so I wrote something down. Here it is:

I was standing at a crosswalk Saturday and out of the corner of my eye, I suddenly saw a man lunge forward and snatch his little boy out of the path of an oncoming car. With one swift, decisive yank, he had pulled the boy to safety.  Holding the boy close, he said, "Are you kidding me?  I JUST told you not to do that!"

The little boy started sobbing, "Leave me alone!  Leave me alone!" He was scared. The dad set him down and knelt by his side.  He set the boy against a wall and put his hand on his back, heavily, firmly, patiently, holding him there and keeping him safe until the boy stopped crying, and until the dad recovered his breath.

Seeing this near-miss play out was jarring.  It wasn't a big leap to make an analogy to myself, and maybe to all of us at some point in our lives.  Our Father in Heaven is always standing right by us.  Rescuing us, sometimes without our consent.  Sometimes we don't necessarily want to be rescued.  We - or at least I - want to say, "Leave me alone!  I'm doing just fine.  I don't want to improve." Because I'm scared.

And then our Father in Heaven puts His hand on us and holds us, waiting for us to see the wisdom in His plan.  In fact, he has made us a promise that He will do just that.  Isaiah 46:4 says,"I have made you; I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you."

 Our Father in Heaven has seven billion individual rescue plans in play right now, all made possible by the atonement of Jesus Christ. One of those rescue plans is yours.  One of them is mine. When President Mellor extended this call to Scott, he said of the calling, "The Lord knows everything about you and he still wants you."

That is true of each one of us.  The Lord knows everything about us and he still wants us. That will always be true.

Sunday, we felt so weird getting ready for church.  Scott's mom and dad and Nikki and Ryan were all there in sacrament meeting, so anyone who noticed would have guessed that Scott would be called, so I felt totally self-conscious.  When they announced the new bishopric, the three men went up on the stand and were asked to speak briefly, along with the outgoing gentlemen, Brother Knight, Brother Conrad and Bishop Adams.  Scott gave a great talk, like he always does.  He is good at speaking and weaving a story.  I ended up not having to speak, and I kinda wished I had had the opportunity, to thank the ward.  I also wanted to hear from the other wives, but time was short.

Immediately after the meeting, we all went to the stake center.  None of the three men were high priests yet; they were all elders, so they had to be ordained.  It was really neat because all three of their fathers were there to do that for them. Bishop Wuthrich's dad is quite elderly and could barely stand to lay his hands on his son's head and ordain him.  It was s tender moment.  All three were also set apart for their callings.  Bruce, Ryan and Josh were all in the circle of men.  My heart was so full.  I wish my dad could have been there, but he and my mom are in Paris.

I still haven't processed all the feelings.  First, I am so proud of Scott.  That seems like a given, but even that is conflicted because he didn't necessarily do anything to strive for this calling.  Who would?  In fact, I joked, "I though we had done everything we could to AVOID this!"  Ha ha.  So it's not that Scott "earned" this.  But I'm proud of him for being such a good man, and someone who always rises to the occasion.  Above all, we both know that Heavenly Father has been preparing our hearts for this for several weeks.  Months, maybe.  Perhaps since the moment Golda opened her mission call and we felt a whoosh of the spirit sweep through the room. We see His hand in the details of our lives, and we marvel at how everything fits together.  That doesn't mean I feel adequate to shoulder the burden, even though I know Scott will do a wonderful job.

Sunday morning, I was showing Scott my calendar.  In our shock, we were trying to figure out where this new responsibility would fit in.  Playfully, I said, "Look.  On November 1st, I teach all night and you have Ptolemy's basketball coach meeting, but Freestone has to be in Salt Lake for Nutcracker after his ballet class, and Ruby and Xanthe have dance too, so Ruby can't drive him.  Araceli has Young Womens, so Tizzy will be home alone. And now there's Young Men's, which you're supposed to be at."  I got to church and opened the program and there were our names an the church cleaning schedule.  November 1st. Seriously, does God have a sense of humor?!  Because that is funny. Each family only cleans the church once a year!

We were so excited to tell Golda about this!  All three of the men have missionaries out.  Isn't that cool?  So Scott sent her a clever email that said, "The new bishop has a missionary out in New York.  The first counselor has one out in Cincinnati.  And the new second counselor has a missionary in Hong Kong."

Golda wrote back and was so, so happy.  She said that she had thought about our new bishopric earlier that week, and had had the distinct impression that her dad would be part of it.  Like I said in my notes for the talk, I am like the little boy who was mad at his dad for saving him.  I told Scott, "I never asked for a new chapter."  I was pretty comfortable without the growth, thank you.  Scott, in his wisdom, had the perfect response: "It would be a boring book if there were no new chapters."  So we're turning the page.

Autumn

Attention, everyone.  I would like to announce that I auditioned for Tziporah's Dance Academy, and I got in!  Madame Tziporah made me a school ID. After my brilliant audition, Tziporah wrote my name and put the sticky note on my school ID as a seal of approval.  Then she said, "I'm going to put you in a flamenco class.  How do you write 'flamenco'?"  This girl!  She is brimming with life.

My preschoolers' witches.  They are so funny, the way they do it their own way.  Lots of glue.  I love the end products!

Tizzy likes to do things all by herself, and I like to let her, so I can get other stuff done.  We still have to do all of our baking, which isn't much, at Coco and Bill's.  We still don't have an oven.  Wow, huh?  Can't have everything.

Birthdays

Scott's 46th birthday party was a rager.  Nana had 3 cookies.  That's how out of control it was.

Frank brought a gift from China.  He is so thoughtful.  The rest of us went around the room and said what we WOULD have gotten Scott.  He would have gotten some cool stuff.  I would have given him a trip to Hawaii for the whole family.

Here's Scott, serving everyone, even on his birthday.

The girls' witches hats are hilarious, right?

Coco and Bill left for Paris on Scott's birthday and woke up in their favorite city for Coco's birthday the next day.  We love following their adventures!

My mom is so elegant and classy.  Happy birthday, Mom!

Happy Birthday, Scott!

It's Scott's 45th birthday!  Happy birthday, Scott.  After being married to this guy for almost 21 years, the novelty of having won him over still hasn't worn off.  I still don't know how we got lucky enough to end up together after those years of digression, bad timing, failed attempts and near misses.  I am thankful we had those years, because we would both be completely different people had we skipped all that learning and growth.  And it's lucky for all of us that I had seven years of adult independence before I had to be part of a team with Scott, because wow.  It's good to know how to carve out enough independence when you're working with 8 other people to make a family. 

I hope all my children are fortunate enough to find a partner just like Scott.  I wish I could give them advice based on my own experience.  Fall in love while you're young and emotional.  Leave home.  Break his heart and then do your own thing for seven years.  Wait, what?  That is terrible advice.  So I got nuthin, kids.  Except: look for the person who gives good gifts, freely and thoughtfully.  Someone who hands money to the cold and broken guys on the street.  Someone who loves kids naturally, is nice to your grandmother, has an impeccable work ethic, remembers what is important to you, has a well-developed sense of gratitude, considers your opinion, doesn't create drama.  Someone who lies.  Lies and says you look beautiful, even if you don't.  But let's limit the lies to just that. :)

Scott always puts everyone else's feelings ahead of his own.  It's actually a lot of pressure to be married to such an unselfish guy.  It keeps the rest of us in line, though, and that's good.  I'm so happy I snagged this guy to raise my kids.  He's doing a stellar job of it, and of life in general.  Thanks, Scott!

Tender Mercies

Here is just one little example of how I feellike our whole family is blessed by Golda's mission service.  This is a letter I wrote to Golda on Sunday:

Dad and I went to the ranch to celebrate Dad's birthday on Saturday night.
Actually, Dad went up Friday after a concert and I met him Saturday. We
were thinking of driving to Capitol Reef or somewhere on Sunday. But Xanthe
was singing with the senior primary in stake conference, so we decided to
go home and go to SC with the kids. On the way in, I said a little prayer
that I wouldn't be cynical about this big, long meeting, and that I would
"get out of it what Golda would want me to."

Xanthe and the kids sang so beautifully. Sarah Scheuller led them. It was
actually magnificent. Dynamics and everything. All the speakers were good.
Then a guy got up, Brother Wright from the 12th ward, and his topic was
missionary work. He held up a Chinese Book of Mormon and said, "I'm going
to Hong Kong on business, and I got 3 copies of this to hand out to people
in HK!"

Hello, answer to my prayer! Not a subtle answer, either, but a direct
reference to your mission. I guess Heavenly Father just wanted me to know
that He was listening. :) 

Later, I wrote her again to tell her what had happened since church.

So, you know the guy that spoke about HK in Stake Conference today? I texted him afterwards and told him about you. I asked him if he would be willing to take a small packet of letters to HK for you. Then I went about my day. Hours later, he texted back and said, "I would love to, but I'm leaving in ten minutes."
My heart fell. I was so sad that I hadn't had everyone write a letter, and hadn't been preparing something for you. I could have had something ready, but I had nothing. I didn't know he was leaving so soon, or whether he would deliver something to you. I actually raced around the house, looking for something I could send you. I didn't even have time to write a letter. I finally just texted him back, "If you see Sister Dopp, give her a hug for us!" I was so bummed! I felt like I had failed you. I said a little prayer like, "Help me!" Then I got up and walked into the garage and there were your language materials that you had wanted us to send. I grabbed them. I looked in the phone book an found out that the Wrights lived on Westbrook. I drove over and rang their doorbell. He was literally just walking out the door, and I held up these two heavy books and said, "I feel so dumb. Do you have room for these?" He and his wife were so nice. He slid them right into his carry-on and I even hastily scrawled you a little note. I found out that their two sons are married to the Wahlstrom girls, and their kids were in Coco's class at Davis. He knows Dad and Bill because he's an attorney.
So, I don't know if you really need those language materials, but if you don't, when you receive them, just open up the book and pretend that every line says, "Your mom loves you. Your mom loves you. Your mom loves you."
Because I just wanted to send you my love, and that's all I had. And then turn the page and pretend it says, "Heavenly Father loves your mom. Heavenly Father loves your mom. Heavenly Father loves your mom." 
 Because He found a way for me to send you something so that I wouldn't feel discouraged that I had missed that opportunity. And if you turn the page again, I'm sure you'll agree that it says, "Heavenly Father loves Sister Dopp. Heavenly Father loves Sister Dopp. Heavenly Father loves Sister Dopp." :)
Love, Mom

After I dropped off the books, I just burst into tears that the Wrights were so nice, and that I wasn't going to have to have regrets about missing the opportunity to send those books.  It would have cost so much money to ship them, I wasn't planning on it, but I knew Golda wanted them. Sunday night, Golda's emails came, and here was her response to my story:

 Oh my goodness is your goal to make me cry every week? hahaha.
That means so much to me, you do not even know. I know that you love me and
I probably tell my companion and zone how much I admire my parents about
every day. Seriously whenever I talk about my family, I get to happy and
proud. Everyone knows my family "as Sister Dopp's family with the cool
names and everyone in her family dances."
Don't feel bad that you couldn't get letters to me, and thank you so much
for sending the books!!!! I'm sure they're the ones I needed, and even if
they're not, I will read "Your mom loves you. Heavenly Father loves your
mom. Heavenly Father loves Sister Dopp" on every page. I know it's true. I
know it's true because that is literally what The Book of Mormon teaches. I
have an eternal family, God loves ALL His children, and I have a personal
Savior whose love is unimaginable.
Yesterday at General Conference I was overwhelmed with love. I had my
journal out and writing all my notes, and the picture of the family that I
keep inside it. I thought of my investigators, especially Jeung Ji Muih who
loves me and is getting baptized next week, and the missionaries
surrounding me, united in sharing the most important message of the
eternities with others, and of you guys, my eternal family who mean
literally everything to me. It was overwhelming. Like I literally didn't
feel like I could hold so much love in my being. I now understand Nephi
when he said "hath filled me with His love, even unto the consuming of my
flesh." A little graphic if you read it at first, haha but there is no
other way to describe how completely Heavenly Father's love envelops us! I
also understand how Heavenly Father needs to teach us "line upon line",
because there are things we simply couldn't process, understand,
appreciate, or have the capacity to experience.
I love HK and I am starting to love trials. Thank you for the pictures!
Tolly is the happiest little creature! I miss him! Tell everyone hi!

Playdate Fail

Ptolemy has a man crush on his friend, Josh.  They are such cute playmates.  Last week, Josh came over and pushed Ptolemy off his top bunk.  Long story short, his collarbone was fractured.  I was so glad I wasn't the other mom.  I'm sure she was mortified.  She brought Josh over with a note of apology, and later, after PT showed up at school in a sling, a pumpkin to carve and another apology.

He didn't move the arm for a few days, but he's fine now.

I checked him out of school one day because it's tiring being in pain.

Everyone enjoyed pampering their baby brother.  Freestone read to him

and Xanthe carried his backpack to and from school.
  Cute little Ptolemy with his skinny little body.  He's all skin and bones, so it's not surprising that his collarbone was hurt.  In fact, the bone doc said there had been a previous fracture on his humerus, that had been healing for a few weeks.  What the heck!  He had a fractured bone and we didn't know?  I'm sure it was minor, but geez.  Boys!