March Forth

“Marching Forth”

Dear family and dear friends, 8 March 2009

More than one friend has approached me recently to tell me they are sorry they did not return my email, but they loved getting mine---“Please don’t remove me from your list!” So, maybe I can account for my famine in writing with a recent incident. Well, not so recent, actually. I think it was in late January about when I was due to send another “hello” that I got an indication from a child that something big was coming (and oh, by the way, what if we don’t share it?) Okay. So, Mom, the record keeper, is to write about everything except the elephant in the room. Easy enough…a hiatus from family letters! But now the elephant is exiting its hiding place…a college daughter is sharing her intentions to marry, and we are gearing up to launch—one child from single to married status, one child from high school to college, and the last daughter from junior high to high school, all in just a few months.

The first launch date is set for Thursday, June 25th. Copilot is Zachary [Archie] Archuleta, no relation that we are sure of to David, though they both sing. Location of launching pad is the Logan temple. (Laurene and Val married there nearly sixteen years earlier, Grandpa and Grandma Gee, nearly fifty-one. And Great Grandpa Hillman and Lucille Rowbury were married there close to 75 years ago.) Two days later, on Saturday, June 27th (a day after Laurene and Val celebrate a 16th anniversary and many of us have traveled a day’s worth of mileage points north and west) Kristen wishes to introduce her husband and celebrate their marriage with friends in “Seattle,” which basically means Bellevue. Do keep your ear to the ground, and hopefully we will each hear which way the wedding train is coming and going. A reception nearby to Archie’s family from Sandy, Utah is in the wings for Saturday, July 18th.

Amber has ducked any wedding winds and is steadily “engaged” with finishing her senior year in style, enjoying Hamlet and Hardy, and facing daylight’s savings with a hardy outlook, wondering if Heritage Halls A or B rooms are to be or not to be in her future. I have heard her say that some of her calculus questions are “fun”…but I am actually unsure if it is my aged ears that should be in question. Maria is teaching us from debate about begging the question and results for insufficient evidence as she prepares and recovers from mock trials, adding early morning AP geography reviews to begin her week on top of Sunday March 8th’s springing forward.

My favorite pun of the week happened during Wednesday’s family reading in Alma, when someone read that “they marched forth”—great timing for the day and Amber remembered that it was March 4th all day! Another thing the Starkeys do with scriptures happened last night. When I heard Elder Bednar uses every opportunity to study his scriptures, I put an old seminary Bible in my bathroom—handy for use while combing hair and doing other non-thinking tasks. However, this morning the Bible was missing. I asked Val what he did with it (who else would steal this book?) He didn’t know. I found it on Amber’s pillow in the family history room. Good studying, Amber! But no, it wasn’t Amber. Maria? It must have been removed to help with her Sacrament talk. Well, not exactly. You see, Mom, there were two spiders on Daddy’s office door that needed help into the next world. So, now you know what the Starkey family does with scriptures. (Stamp out evil?) Glad to know the “word” to be more powerful than the “sword;” hopeful it is wielding perceptible benefits to your lives; thinking of you! The Starkeys