I Wish!

You know how some webmail services will provide a list of those in your contacts who are currently online to "Chat". You know... it will say "Andrew Rcncher is available to chat" and you can type in" Hey Andrew!" and then sit there for about 15 minutes while he figures out how the computer knows his name and why it is now trying to talk to him and eventually just calls you on your phone to reply.

So a few days ago I was checking my email and up pops "Irv Rencher is available to chat." And I have to admit that for 1/100th of a second I celebrated. Then I realized that Mom still uses their joint email so it really wasn't a message from Heaven. But for that split second I had hundreds of things to say.

• Hey Dad! Are you there?
• I miss you.
• How is Heaven?
• Joe lost a balloon the other day. As it floated heavenward he said through his tears "At least Grandpa will have a fun thing to play with." Did you get the balloon?
• BYU lost. Do you care anymore or is that so "before death"?
• So do you see Grandma and Grandpa Rencher a lot? Say howdy from me.
• How was the reunion between Uncle Horace and John? I bet that was sweet!
• Are you happy?
• Do you know that I think you were a great dad?
• Your sons miss you very much. They don't like to talk about it though.
• Dad, I am sorry I tried to send you on a guilt trip the last time we talked. I just wanted you to get better. Will you forgive me?
• Are you on Facebook? It would be nice if you were. Just post an update now and then.
• Your grandsons are getting so big. Keep an eye on them will you. I worry.
• Could you tell me one thing that you love about me? Like you used to on my birthday. If you want to tell me a few I won't mind.
• You married an amazing woman. Thank you for agreeing to leave her with us for another 40 years.
• I smelled sawdust the other day and thought of you. I love that smell.
• Thank you for teaching me that is ok to laugh at myself. And also how to change a tire.
• I love you.
• I miss you, Dad.

The Doctor is In! NSAH IV

Ok. Pretend it is Wednesday. The question for this week is...

Did your family have any home cures for hiccups, warts, cold, flu, sore throat etc?

My hiccups are horrible. I get them once and then I get them all day long! They also hurt. And according to my boys they are LOUD. My dad had a foolproof cure for the hiccups. He would scare us. It worked every time. He would notice we had the hiccups and then boom he would yell our name or jump out at us. It never failed!

Wait, let me give you some background. Dad worked for the LDS church in the fleet department. He was in charge of the cars in many missions all over the world. I remember once he called me at work when I was about 20 and I had a bad case of the hiccups. He started telling me that he had some bad news. He told me there had been a car accident in one of the missions and the missionaries were hurt. My heart stopped because I had a lot of boys that I cared about that were serving missions at the time. He said that one of the missionaries was one of my close friends! I was honestly almost in tears. Then he stops and says "Are your hiccups gone?" and they were! Then he proceeded to tell me the real reason he called. Torture maybe, but it did get rid of the hiccups.

My mom has her own cures for things. If you have a sore throat you should gargle salt water. As soon as you stop gagging it works! Just teasing Mom. Mom is all about prevention. She talks about eating healthy and getting enough sleep and exercising! Those are the first things she will tell you! Then the salt water gargle and also a humidifier. Absolutely you must have a humidifier. I don't remember going to doctor ever (except my junior high checkup!) so the healthy living must have worked!

What's in a Name? NSAHIII

What is your name? How did you get it? What does it mean?My name is Kelli. Spelled with an i. It has become a pet peeve of mine to have my named spelled with a y. I think because I went to school with a boy named Kelly so I always thought that was the boy way to spell my name. In my baby book that Mom filled out while expecting my arrival it had a space for that names you were planning on for the baby. It has Bradley for a boy name and Amy for a girl name. The story goes that Dad took one look at me and said that I was a Kelli with an "i" and for a middle name Lyn with 1 "n" not 2. That is how I got my name. I am the only one that Dad named as far as I know. In most baby name books (which by the way I still love to browse in my spare time) Kelli means "warrior woman" or "fighter" or "defender". Now growing up I must admit I hated the definition of my name. I wanted something a little more feminine or romantic but by college I grew to love it. Though every time I am in a bookstore and see a baby name book I look to see if Kelli has anything added to it like "beautiful talented warrior"!

**Guess what in trying to find graphics I went online and I found several new meanings. "Brave, Lively and Bright-headed" have all been added to my name meaning. There was even one obscure one that said "Farm by a meadow". Weird. I betcha that enough Kellis complained that they had to add some splash to the meaning. I don't know really who "they" are but they were awfully nice to add some pizazz. By the way "bright-headed" means brilliant. According to me.**

The origin if my name varies. Some books say Irish some English. I prefer the books which say Celtic or Gaelic myself. Much more romantic! I guess my real name origin is "Irv".

Apparently Dad was really ahead of the times because Kelli became popular for what looks likes 1 month in 1970 and immediately declined from there. Which is fine with me because I liked being the only female Kelli in my class. It made it easy to know if people were talking about me. Which in reality nobody ever was doing! I was just never meant to be a Jennifer. (no offense Jennifers) (Jenn might actually read this so I really mean no offense)

Kelli is a good name and I like it better than Amy (no offense Amy) (I don't think any Amy's will actually read this but better to be safe...). I really like to write my name also. I have a great looking "K"!
Now I am starting to ramble. Goodbye for now.

Kelli Lyn

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 11 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Not so Ancient History II

I am doing great on my New Year's Resolution to start my personal history. Here it is already week 2 and I am still going strong!

The topic for this week is...

Your first car! How did you get it? What make and model was it? Any fun stories?

My first car was a truck. I think my dad arranged that on purpose. He knew I was going to need something big and beefy to survive. It is truly sad but I have no earthly idea what the make and model were. I wish my dad was alive so I could fill in that little bit of info. I do know it was a lovely shade of burgundy. I drove a burgundy truck.

One of the results of having a truck was that during my senior year I was the designated riser driver for our Madrigal group. The very first time the boys loaded them into the back they just stacked them straight up and therefore the last few risers were hanging over edge of the tailgate. I didn't realize this until I was driving home with Wendy B. I turned the corner and she started screaming that the risers were falling out! I turned to look back at them and apparently I turned the steering wheel as well. I turned back just in time to drive over the curb and ram my right headlight into a big tree!

I distinctly remember watching Wendy bounce up and hit her head on the roof of the truck. I think it broke her clip that she was wearing in her hair. I dropped her off and started to head for home. I had 2 thoughts. The first was I had avoided the wrath of Miss M. (the choir teacher) by not losing the risers out of the back of my truck. Well done on my part! The second thought was it wouldn't do me any good because my dad was going to KILL me.

I got home and as luck would have it Dad was in the garage AND he was holding a hammer. I remember getting out of that burgundy truck and just walking up to him and blurting out. "I hit a tree." He started waving the hammer around and yelling all kinds of questions and I fled into the safety of the house and had a good cry! I did go back later to get some tree pieces for my scrapbook which I have yet to put together.

One year later Dennis was driving my truck home from school at the U and a cute little old man who had no business driving pulled into our lane going about 10 miles an hour. We ran into the back of him going 50. I thought we had killed them! Dennis got out and checked on them to make sure they were ok while I sat in the truck and commenced with the freaking out! After he reported that they were fine I started to face the reality that I was going to have to tell my dad! I think Dennis was thinking about the same thing because we both start pacing up and down the median waiting for the police.

It actually worked out great for me because Dennis dropped me off at work and then went to my house to break the news to my dad. I don't think Dad yelled at him. Dad called me later at work and told me that he was glad that we weren't hurt and that we were much more important than any car or any burgundy truck for that matter. I think I liked that second accident better.

It was a good truck. But obviously not good enought to take a bunch of pictures of to share with you!

The Build Up!!

Well there is nothing like a busy holiday to cure me of my blogging addiction. Cold turkey I stopped reading, stopped commenting, stopped writing, I almost stopped thinking about what I was going to blog about. Almost.
The days leading up to Christmas were packed. Looking back now I don't know what they were packed with. We didn't go see the lights. We didn't go sledding. I must have just been sitting around dreaming of sugar plums.

Actually I know that some nights were filled with

1.) A Dance Recital for Brandon and Tricia's girls, Kassidy, Tayler and Kimber. (Hip-Hop Christmas, who knew?)

2.) Aaron's Gymnastics Recital! So fun to see him flipping and spinning! 3.) Josh's Orchestra Concert! Wow, they sounded great! Even my mom was impressed!

I also remember the 20th . The 20th of December is my dad's birthday. We celebrated my dad's life in a big way all day on Saturday. The day started with a package in the mail from my uncle and aunt who found a HUGE treasure trove of my dad's life. We found newspaper clippings, graduation programs, documents and wonderful priceless pictures! It was a great way to start the day!We then proceeded with our celebration by writing little notes and tying them to balloons. (I know it isn't environmentally responsible. deal with it. my dad died.) The boys were hilarious in their notes. Things like:How is heaven? I hope you and Brother Trump are having fun. (Bro. Trump is one of my parents really good friends who died the year before Dad). Josh informed him of the score of the BYU Utah game. Jonathan told him that BYU still rocks. He signed it sincerely, Jonathan. Alex said "see you later".

We all went up to the cemetery and sang happy birthday and then let the balloons go one by one. It looked really cool.
Then we headed up to the church for hours of fun. We played Basketball...

Sweet jump shot! Mitch can totally stuff an 8 year old. We are so proud! The Human Pretzel...

and Dodgeball...First we lined up so we could divide into teams! Cool line up, huh? Joe to Mitch!Andrew totally got me here!

We sat and ate and talked and laughed. Boy did we laugh. I can tell you why in 2 words (or one word and one initial.) B. Rad . You see earlier in the week his wife heard about the plans to play dodge ball and decided that B. Rad needed to dress up like a real dodge ball player. Right after the line up B. Rad disappeared only to make a grand entrance a few minutes later in full battle gear. The laughter went on for a full 10 minutes. It kept springing back every time we glanced his way. The first game his team won because the opposing team was distracted by not so much his athletic prowess but his outfit! Scary boy with hairy cleavage!

After all our fun and games we dropped the kids off with babysitters and proceeded to go to the Mandarin for dinner with just the adults. What a great time we had! We talked and laughed and laughed and even cried a bit as we talked about Dad.

We miss him but he has left a great legacy for us to remember and celebrate. Happy Birthday, Dad! B.Rad and SaraMitch and Haley Alli and MomTricia and Brandon Jenn and Andrew

Be There!

Did you know that a few months ago I was kicked out of the Salt Lake Temple. Ok, I wasn't really kicked out I really never got in! It seems that the expiration date isn't just a suggestion as my brother Mitch and I discovered. They mean it and no tears or threats of never returning will budge them. Ok I didn't threaten to never return. At least not out loud. I realized it wouldn't really punish anyone other than me and maybe my mom if I never went back.

So Mitch, wanting to calm my tears, offered to buy me lunch. I loved the lunch but I loved hanging with my brother even more! We made it back for pictures. And after all that is really the most important part. Ha. So I felt really bad about missing my cousins wedding but I felt really, really bad when Mom starting crying and making Mitch and I promise that we would do anything we could to be in the Celestial Kingdom. Sheesh.

Last night I had a great night with some of my in-laws. We got to go to the temple and then out to dinner with Dave's parents, and 3 of his brothers, Mark, Paul and Nate and Brittney who is Mark's amazing wife (who got a darling haircut, but I digress). We went up to the Bountiful Temple (remember I am never going back to that other one) (just kidding Mom!) and it was wonderful, of course, to be there. I have always loved the temple. I love the symbolism and the peace and the inspiration that comes when I am there.

This time at the temple is the first endowment session that I have been to since my dad died. I have done initiatories and sealings and baptisms but not the endowment. It has taken on new meaning for me. You see I know that I have someone on the other side waiting for me. Dad will have my reception there very well planned and I hope it doesn't stress him out and I hope he doesn't mind if I am late! As time goes by there will be even more people that I love waiting for me also. It made me realize that the horrible feeling that I had not being with my loved ones at that wedding would be nothing compared to the feeling of not being able to be with family and friends whom I love and adore forever!

So once again Mom was right. I'll try my hardest to be there. You be there too.

The Holiday in August!

I wake up every year on August 1st and announce to anyone who will listen (thanks Joe-Joe!) that it is My Birthday Month! All my life I used to joke that August was the only month without a major holiday in it and that someday when I had fulfilled my destiny that my birthday would become the August holiday. Suffice it to say having my family and loved ones practice this eventuality wears thin on them! The young women were good sports though singing to me every week! (This month is such a special one. It's birthday time for you....) It was really only one. My husband gets a bit tired of doing all the cooking, cleaning, shopping, dishes and such but really it is my birthday month! Oh wait he does that every month! Ha-ha. Just kidding Mom. I help. Sometimes. Back to the holiday. I am not sure what to call it yet but already practice for this celebration has begun. School started on my birthday. The boys say that the best gift they can give me is to leave me alone for several hours. It sure didn't seem like several hours. My family has a tradition that they call each other on their birthdays to say "hi" and "glad you're around". Sometimes someone forgets (that's ok you guys, I only cried for a few minutes) but that is part of the fun. We get together every now and then and say "So, who forgot you?" It really helps with the family unity thing.

Don't read this next part if you think I only write about sad stuff.

I mean it Tricia!

This tradition also made for a sad few minutes on my birthday. My dad, you see, used to be the first to call. He would sometimes call at 5:00 in the morning in order to be the first. It was horrible. I remember telling him I was going to take my phone off the hook. Anyway when I finally sat down at about 10:30 am. I couldn't figure out why I was so sad. Then the realization hit me and I cried out "My dad didn't call me for my birthday!" I cried for a while over that one. I will miss him telling the story about my birth and the poor man who had been in the waiting room all night waiting for the birth of his child and how I came in a few hours. I will miss him telling me the story of Mom asking if he had seen me yet and when she commented about how beautiful I was he went back to the nursery because he was sure they had shown him the wrong baby. Aw, Dad. I missed your stupid early morning call.You may read again, free from emotion. Tricia don't say I didn't warn you.

The other tradition that we fight but secretly must like is that Mom makes us all go around the circle and tell each other why we love the birthday person. I told Dave that I wasn't going to let her do that this birthday. I didn't want it. I wasn't in a good place for it. (what in the world does that mean, anyway?) Despite my protests it happened anyway and thanks to my sweet family I did feel very loved. I really should have written them all down so I could read them whenever I needed a little pick me up. Let me see if I can remember them...

• Mitch: I love Kelli because she makes a mean meatloaf.
• Haley: I love Kelli because she gave me $5 for a movie. Once. A long time ago.
• Alli: I love Kelli so much I put her on my Do Not Call List. Teasing Alli.
• Sara: I love Kelli because she is the best kite maker. Ever.
• Brad: I love Kelli because she has blue eyes.
• Brandon: I love Kelli because she knows movie lines from Star Wars.
• Tricia: I love Kelli because her legs don't look as good as mine.
• Mom: I love Kelli because she does a good job keeping plants alive.

Aren't they wonderful! Can you see know why I love my birthday month so much! Andrew and Jenn were missing but don't worry I will hit them up later!Josh took this picture. Two questions. Can you tell I spent a good hour crying? Be honest. yeah. I thought so. Second question what is up with pointing my toes like that. I did it here also. Strange. Goodbye August! I will miss you! Dave won't.

Twisted Roots

I have been to a few reunions this year and since visiting the family tree I have been sitting on my branch (I'm off there on the left somewhere) looking around at the other twisted branches (and you know who you are) in my family tree and wondering about roots. I have especially enjoyed thinking about the family quirks that make people extremely interesting.

Some of these quirks seem to stretch back into past generations of intense quirkiness. There are some that have been around for so long that the inheritors no longer think of them as quirks but as normal.

In my family we have tardiness, stubbornness, organizational skills, bossiness, my way or the highway thinking, peace keeping skills, quick tempers, quick feet, obsessiveness about being on time, and many others I am sure I have forgotten (or maybe I am mentally blocking them if they are too painful to think about). Let me know if I have forgotten any glaringly obvious ones, Alli. Kelli's Crazy Couch
I love to see the histories of the quirks and see them meet other quirks when a marriage and children occur. Fascinating stuff. For example. My dad came from the "obsessively early" side where my mom came from "tardy" side of quirkland! So it caused quite a bit a stress at times in their marriage I am sure. It is fun to see how my different siblings and I have worked out our own adapted style. Me, I am right on time, a nice perfect balance.

I wonder what I do that seems completely normal to me and yet to someone else it would be a quirk? Hhhmmmm. Are you list makers? I make lists. I make lists of the lists I should make! I have cousins and siblings who have inherited other traits ande some have adopted some of their very own. I know some have developed the quirk of doodling while talking on the phone or others it is the quirk of strapping a gun to themselves 24/7.

Me going to a Relief Society Social. Yeah, my piece totally matches my shoes and handbag.

What are your inherited or invented family quirks?

Grandma??