Depression

I have felt a sense of depression lately, and most of it has to do with my spouse. Let's not jump to conclusions here, however, because he hasn't done anything intentionally to cause me to feel this way. Let me explain...

Depression is bound to happen when you step on the scale and realize that you have 11 weeks to go in your pregnancy, have already gained 25 pounds, and now weigh more than your husband. Awesome. (And no, I do not want to post a picture of myself, thank-you-very-much.)

Depression is when your husband RUINS your April Fools joke that you have been planning and scheming for WEEKS. Weeks, people! I even kept it all to myself this year, whereas normally I'm so excited about it that I tell everyone what I'm planning. Not this year. Let's back up and talk about mine and Eric's history regarding April Fools...

Eric and I had our first date/first kiss on April 3, 2008. (I can't believe it's been 3 years already, by the way!) Anyway, we had the date planned and knew what we were doing and I was so dang excited. I really, really liked this boy and despite my sister's best efforts, I was bound and determined to date Eric Bready. He was pretty excited too, because let's face it, I was a major catch! (And really good at deceiving boys into thinking I was something special.)

Well, two days before the date, I decided it would be fun to mess with him a little bit and sent him the following text message:

"I have some bad news... I don't think I'm going to be able to go on our date on Thursday :("

To which he responded:

"Oh, OK. Well do you want to reschedule?"

I was laughing at myself, knowing what I was going to write, but also debated sending the next text... Could he really handle it? Or would he get mad/offended? Well, if he can't take my sense of humor, we may as well know now before anyone gets in too deep:

"Actually, my missionary came home last week and he flew out here to surprise me and proposed. So I probably shouldn't go on a date with you."

Looooong pause:

"Oh wow. Well, congratulations I guess! That's exciting!"

Slight pause, enough to make him sweat a little:

"APRIL FOOLS!!!! Haha I'm SOOO excited for our date!!"

Then I sweat a little while I waited for his response:

"Haha oh man you got me good! I'm laughing pretty hard right now. But thank goodness we're still on because I'm really looking forward to it!"

He passed. And he thought I was funny. Score! (As a side note, these aren't word-for-word texts, although I wish I had saved them. But I have a pretty good memory so they have to be pretty darn close to what was actually said.)

We went on that date, and the rest is history. But now, every year, I try to get him on April Fools Day. But it's really hard because he's usually expecting something, and I get him every time. Neither of us remember what I did the past 2 years, but this year, I was going into early labor!

I thought it out. It was perfect timing since April Fools fell on a Friday this year and I was far enough along in my pregnancy that it was possible and believable... We would go on our normal Friday-night date and then probably come home late to watch a movie or some more 24 (we're on Season 2). He would think he made it through the day this year because it would be somewhere around 11 by the time we got home. Now, I couldn't just say, "Eric, I'm in labor," because that would be way too obvious. So... the water was going to have to break. I decided a balloon was my best option. Luckily the night before, Eric and some of his Chemistry TA friends played a prank on his old professor and it included balloons. So I snuck a couple and put them into my pocket. I practiced Friday morning after Eric had left for school, testing the amount of water and the amount of pressure I would need. The balloon wasn't going to break without some assistance, however, so I decided I would put on a baggy pair of sweatpants, and put my really sharp tweezers in my pocket. I'm ALWAYS cuddled up in a blanket so it was going to be super easy to pull the tweezers out of my pocket without him noticing and pop the balloon. Hysteria would obviously ensue because I was only 29 weeks and we hadn't purchased a carseat and oh-my-gosh-what-are-we-going-to-do?!!?!

But I didn't start there. Oh no. All week long I was complaining of weird "cramps" that were getting pretty painful. "Eric, they must just be Braxton Hicks or something." He agreed. "Eric, they're pretty bad today (Thursday), do you think I should call the doctor?" He thought everything was probably fine and that we didn't need to worry. Friday night we parked at the temple to go in a do a session and he asked if I wanted him to drop me off. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea. The contraction-y things were pretty bad when I was walking up to class this morning." He never thought anything of it.

We got home around 10:45, just as I had predicted. Eric went into the room to change his clothes, which usually takes awhile when he's in his Sunday clothes. I almost backed out, thinking again that I was being too mean. But instead, I immediately went into the bathroom to fill up the balloon. It took forever for the water to get warm (I didn't want freezing cold water exploding all over my... area) but I filled it up, tied it off and started heading to the toilet so I could hide it while I went to change my clothes. Just as I turned my back, Eric BARGED in and said, "What are you doing??"

He caught me. Red-handed with a blue balloon full of water. I looked at him and timidly said, "Nothing" with a huge grin on my face.

"Cooourt.... What are you doing?"

"GOING INTO LABOR DANG IT!!!" And then I may or may not have attacked him and hit him a million times and yelled at him for ruining my perfect joke.

See what I mean? Depression. I put a lot of thought into that and just as it was about to happen and my anticipation was killing me, he ruined it. We both laughed pretty hard still, and he did admit that it was a good plan. He thought it was pretty hilarious that I had been faking contractions for a whole week! But alas, I guess I'll have to wait until next year... Unfortunately, I don't think I'll ever be able to use going into labor as an April Fools joke now.

Inappropriate

I love to laugh. I love when I get going so hard that I can't stop and then everything is so funny that it just makes me keep laughing. Maybe some people think I'm immature during these moments, but I don't care. Laughter is good for the soul.

As part of our date on Friday night, Eric and I went to check out strollers at Babies R Us. We hadn't really looked at any baby stuff with the actual intent of buying something before that so I was pretty excited. There was a jogging stroller travel system on display in the middle aisle of the store and we were trying to figure it out. It took us a good 5 minutes to release the carseat from the stroller. I thought that was pretty funny, so naturally I was laughing a little bit.

Then Eric decided he wanted to test out the folding capabilities of the stroller... Folding the thing was no problem. It was unfolding it that proved to be the challenge. There were probably 15 or 16 red buttons spread out all over the stroller and he was trying all of them to get the dang thing to open back up, but nothing was working. By this point, I was laughing pretty hard so I walked around the corner down an aisle of high chairs and bouncy seats to try to regain my composure.

I came back out to see that Eric was still bent over the stroller, shaking it with all his might. He looked up at me and said, "It's like we're in a movie! We're the stupid couple that has no idea what to do with any of this baby stuff!"

I totally lost it at that point. People were looking at me like I was a crazy person, and I was. I did eventually stop laughing, but then I would think about seeing Eric bent over the stroller in utter frustration and I would start all over again.

Now let's fast-forward a couple nights to Monday's family prayer. Eric had a really big biochemistry test that he has been pretty worried about and he told me he was taking it at 3 pm on Monday afternoon. So I had been praying for him that he would do well. Around 5:30 I texted him and asked if he was done with his test. He said, "Yes, and I got a 97!" I pretty much FLIPPED out I was so proud of him! When I was cooking dinner, I brought it up again how excited I was that he got a 97 and he wasn't really that pumped up about it, which was kind of weird considering how big of a deal it was.

That night was Eric's turn to say the prayer. He was telling Heavenly Father all that we are grateful for and he gave thanks for doing well on his exam that day and asked that he would also be able to study sufficiently and do well on his biochemistry test on Thursday. I jerked my hand away from his and gave him a really weird look. He looked over at me and whispered, "What? I'm taking it on Thursday." And I whispered (because we were in the middle of a prayer, you know) "Well what test did you take today?" His response: "Statistics."

I of course started laughing. (so much for the whispering) No wonder he wasn't jumping up and down and off the walls about getting a 97!! Statistics is a pretty easy class for Eric and he's gotten at least a 97, if not higher on all of his other exams so far. I told him that I thought he had taken the biochemistry test and knew nothing about statistics. He told me he must not have gotten 100 because I was praying about the wrong test. :)

I mostly composed myself and said OK and we resumed the position to continue praying. Eric bowed his head and said, "Sorry" to continue the prayer. I don't know why, but that was hilarious to me so I lost it all over again. Eric was laughing too but also asking me what was so funny. I couldn't even talk. It felt like I was back with my girls in Snow 137 or 320 of the Colony, trying to have roommate prayer. That NEVER ended with an "amen", just a giggle fit that lasted forever. Good times.

Finally when we both calmed down, Eric told me he would just start the prayer over instead of trying to apologize to Heavenly Father for our irreverance. I thought that was a pretty good idea.

I sure hope this baby isn't having second thoughts about her choice in parents... We can be kinda nuts-o sometimes. Hopefully she has a good sense of humor :)

Ruffles and Bows

Anyone who knows me at all knows that patience is not one of my strong points. And by that I mean, I have NEVER been a patient person and I HATE waiting for things. Think about it... I sent off TWO missionaries. And I didn't marry either one of them!

Well for someone as impatient as myself, waiting for a baby to arrive is pure torture. I mean, my patience was already pushed to the limit just by waiting this long to even have a baby. And now that I'm pregnant, holy cow, I just want that baby in my arms NOW!!!

I guess I should be grateful I'm not an elephant. Those poor creatures have to wait 22 months to meet their little ones! They are creating something much LARGER than me, but still. If I had the gestation period of an elephant, I would fail at being a parent before it even started. (Couldn't wait 2 years for missionaries, remember?)

Anyway, needless to say, I'm getting really anxious and excited to meet this baby of ours. Eric is too. I still have 4 months left and it feels like an eternity. On that same note, however, it's been 4 months since we found out we were expecting and that has flown by. I have plenty to keep me busy between now and June anyway.

It has helped tremendously that we got to have our ultrasound last Friday!! It was the PERFECT birthday present for me and my parents flew in for the weekend so they could be a part of it, which was really fun and so special.

And that's the reason for the title of my post... Ruffles and Bows...
Because that's all it's going to be for us for awhile since we're having a GIRL!!!!!

We are very excited! I thought for sure I was having a boy, but my mother-in-law knew all along it was a girl. And I guess my own mom did too. Both of them had already purchased baby girl clothes months ago!

Now we just need to decide on a name. We had some boy names picked out that we LOVE, but we're still trying to figure out what we like that will look good in pink.

Last night we went to Target and browsed through their baby stuff. Oh man, I was in heaven. Eric asked me to please stop gasping and saying "OH MY GOSH" with every dress I picked up. I just couldn't help myself... it's all so adorable! We did end up purchasing our first baby item though...

(the pants are turned around so you can see the CUTE ruffles!)

My due date is June 18th, the day before Father's Day. If she's born on Father's Day, then I'm prepared with an outfit to bring her home in!

When He's Not Farting....

... Eric is actually a really cool guy. I would know, I married him!

I know you all think your husbands are wonderful, and that is just great. But I think mine is awesome and I never really talk about that. He has made my life pretty dang special and has made me feel like a pretty special girl. 

Eric was a little peeved about all the silly things I shared about him, but he knows I did it out of love. Nonetheless, I told him I was going to do a special post all about him and how awesome he is, so get ready, cuz here it comes!

In Eric's pre-Courtney days (we'll refer to that as PC), he was quite the ladies' man. And I have a feeling it had something to do with his long hair...

But I bet you guys could have guessed that, seeing as he is such a handsome man and all. What you probably didn't guess is that Eric was on the BYU Lacrosse Team!!!

That's him right there! #5. I am not including this information to brag that my husband was a collegiate athlete (although that is pretty dang cool), but rather because of his personal qualities that led him to that point. Eric started playing lax as a Sophomore at Lone Peak High School--the very first year they ever had a lax program. They were horrible. But Eric worked super hard and he even attended BYU's lax camp every summer to help himself improve. Then when he got to BYU as a freshman, he tried out for the team. He didn't make it. So he worked even harder and worked out with the team as much as possible. Then he tried out again and he made it! This is a pattern I have noticed many times in knowing Eric: when he knows he wants something, he works hard to get it and he doesn't give up until he does. Take me, for example. He had some pretty tough competition ;)

Moving right along here... Eric is also a reeeally good big brother! He is the oldest of 5 kids and every one of his siblings looks up to him a LOT. Although they like to complain that Eric is the golden child and he gets everything he wants, they really do love him.

That is Eric with his youngest brother, Courtland, who is now 13. You can just tell by Courtland's smile how much he loves being with his big brother. Stacie (Eric's mom) always tells me that when Courtland was little, he would ONLY allow Eric to help him do things. None of the other kids were allowed near him. I love stories like this. I know Eric is going to be such an awesome dad because he is a great big brother. I'm glad that he will be the one setting the example in our household. As a side note, the dog is definitely a huge part of Eric's life. Her name is Kai and she also adores Eric. She is pretty much his dog and he trained her. I am amazed at how well she listens to Eric! She wouldn't be so obedient if he wasn't so loving to her. He still wrestles her to the ground though which always worries me because she's getting so old. Stacie always tells us that Kai has a really hard time walking around on Mondays after Eric plays with her on Sundays when we're up there for dinner. :)

Eric is an extremely loyal friend. He would NEVER say anything bad about any of his friends, and he has a lot of them. He accepts all of them for who they are and never judges based on mistakes they may have made or things they sometimes say or do. He is a really great example to me in this arena because I tend to be overly critical of others. I'm quick to point fingers at someone else because of all the issues I have. I'm trying really hard to learn Eric's ways.

This is Eric and his best friend Doug at Eric's birthday party a couple years ago. I also love how silly Eric is. He really is a goofball and it makes life so much fun! We have a great time together even though he told me once, pretty seriously I might add, that I am no fun. Apparently my level of fun just doesn't even compare to his... but he has been diligently trying to change that too.

Eric is an EXCELLENT teacher! And he really enjoys teaching, which is nice for me because--as I have already made abundantly clear in this post--I have a lot to learn from him!

This is me after I caught my first fish! Eric took me fishing back when we were dating and I had a blast. I was worried I would hate it and that I wouldn't be able to catch anything. But thanks to Eric's patience and great teaching, I caught 8 fish that day! (This picture is already making me miss my pre-pregnancy body... oh boy)

Well, I could got on for hours and hours, but I'll wrap it up before anyone falls asleep. I love Eric, and he loves me. That is a wonderful feeling and I can't wait to see our love continue to grow!

Oh and by the way, Eric found out today that he was awarded an ORCA grant for the research he is doing with a chemistry professor on campus. I am SO proud of him and his accomplishments!!

The Power of Prayer

When I was in my senior year of high school, I had THE best seminary teacher EVER! For our seminary graduation (or maybe it was Christmas?), she gave each of us a plaque that says "Prayer Changes Things." I have come to know that this phrase is so true. Prayer does change things. It can change anything and I have a very strong testimony of that. But even more powerful than the prayer of one person, is the combined power of a multitude praying together.

Yet another powerful tool is the internet. The internet brings people together and allows us to tune into what may be be going on in the lives of other people instead of always just focusing on our own problems.

Today, I am asking anyone who is reading this to help me combine these tools: internet and prayer. There is a very special girl named Mary who will be undergoing a very serious surgery on her brain tomorrow (Friday the 21st.) Last summer, she suffered an AVM bleed. I do not know enough about it to speak intelligently about what exactly that means, but she was in the ICU for awhile and since then has had some very interesting trials. One of which was that she could not taste food the way food should be tasted. This problem made her not want to eat. Can you imagine? Not enjoying the taste of food? That would be so frustrating to me! But that is probably the least of her worries.

Mary is a BYU student and she was miraculously able to return to BYU this past fall but some of her symptoms came back and she had to go home early. So now she is undergoing surgery to remove the AVM from her brain. If any of you bloggers out there enjoy reading good stories of total strangers like I do, Mary's mom started a blog to tell their story. You can check it out here. You can also get all the details on Mary's story and what exactly is going on with her brain.

Although a few years younger than me, I know what a wonderful person Mary is. She has always been so bubbly and bright and so very kind to anyone she meets. She is hilarious and fun too. During my fourth year of Girls' Camp, Mary was a wee little first year and she hung out in our cabin for literally HOURS, entertaining us all with her "Coffee Talk with Linda Showelbowg." Any of you girls out there remember that? :) Then in testimony meeting during Sacrament meeting a couple weeks later she somehow related all the mosquito bites we got to some Gospel principle. She had everyone laughing but at the same time actually had a really great insight.

Anyway, please pray for Mary. Heavenly Father will hear our prayers and we can all be a part of helping one of His children.

If you're interested in getting updates from her surgery, you can read her older sister Catherine's blog here.

Dear Mom

I think it's about time I tell you how grateful I am that you had me. You see, I'm the second child of your six. And at this point, I don't know if I'll ever make it past baby #1. It's been a rough 17 weeks. I never knew it would be possible for me to have such an awful aversion to food. I have to eat or else I throw up... but I never want to eat because the thought of food makes me want to throw up too. You of all people know how much I HATE throwing up. Before I was pregnant, I hadn't done that since my senior year in high school!

But there have been other issues as well... From the time Baby Bready here was the size of a cumquat, I was already waking up in the middle of the night (every night) having to pee. After getting back into bed, it usually takes me a good hour or two to fall back asleep. Oh sleep... How I love thee. All I want to do is sleep, but I have no time for that.

The nausea FINALLY went away! Hallelujah! The past 4 days have been glorious. Except for now I have this awful pain in my lower back constantly. I sit at my desk at work all day, and then I have to go sit in a desk at school for another couple of hours. Last night it was so bad that not even laying down in bed at night was bringing any relief.

Everyone keeps telling me it's worth it, yourself included. And I know you must be telling me the truth or else you would have stopped at Nikki and I would never have been born. And I can see it in you too. When I was putting all of our home videos onto DVD for you for Christmas I loved watching the ones of you filming your babies. I could hear the love in your voice so strongly. I think I'm starting to get a little glimpse of that, but I cannot WAIT to hold this baby in my arms. I know I will be instantly in love and it's going to feel so good.

I love this picture of you holding me. I am SO ready to be a mom and to finally understand a mother's love.

Love forever,
Bam

P.S. Here I am at 15 weeks. I'm gonna be HUGE seeing as I have such a short torso.

Our Marriage

December 27th was Eric and my 2 year wedding anniversary. Two years?? Seriously? I know that two years doesn't sound like a lot, but back when I sent off my missionaries (not at the same time mind you), two years was an ETERNITY. But I didn't end up marrying either of those missionaries and boy am I glad! Not that they aren't great guys, but my Eric is so perfect for me and I really do know that Heavenly Father placed him in my life at the exact moment that He did so that we would be married and raise a righteous family.

Oh and that family part? We are both SO DANG EXCITED! Especially Eric. Which just makes me love him even more. Every day he pats my tummy and lowers his head down and says, "Come out." And then he tells me he wants the baby to come out and play with him. We both agree, however, that it would be best if the baby stays in there until it's ready. Although it will be awhile before they can actually play together, I know he's going to be a great dad and that is one of the reasons I know we were meant to be together. Since I was very young, becoming a mom has always been my biggest dream. I always struggled trying to figure out what I wanted to be professionally and choosing a major, etc. and I think that's because all I ever really wanted to do was have babies. And I need someone with me who wants babies too and wants a wife who wants babies and wants to be the support system so that there can be babies (hopefully lots of them!) Eric is perfect for the job.

And now, just some random information about the Breadys:

• We bought a box of garbage bags at Costco right after we got married. We're still working on using up that same box.
• Eric farts a LOT. I'm pretty sure they get more frequent and more smelly every day.
• We both get annoyed when the other person leaves messes around. We both leave messes around on a daily basis.
• We each have our own tube of toothpaste: Colgate for Eric, Crest for me. At first I tried to just use the Colgate, but he didn't like the way I squeezed the tube and would comment on it every day. So I just switched back to Crest.
• Eric steals my socks. He likes the way girl socks feel on his feet better. 
• We are both very competitive. We have definitely yelled at each other while playing games with friends. I am only slightly embarrassed about this. (It's usually Eric's fault)
• Eric's hiking pace is GRUELING for me. I always say that I love hiking and Eric thinks I'm lying about it because every time we go together, I complain the whole time that he is going too fast.
• I sleep in the very center of the bed because I like to be close to Eric, who is dutifully staying on his side.
• Speaking of sleeping, Eric says and does HILARIOUS things while he's asleep. 

To celebrate our anniversary, we went to La Jolla Groves in the Riverwoods. It was AMAZING. We were both drooling over the delicious food and we cannot wait to go back! I ordered the chicken stuffed crepes, and as much as I want to try everything on the menu, I may have to get the same thing every time I go.

Eric and I agree that this next year of marriage is going to be the best yet! I will graduate from BYU, Eric will take the MCAT and apply to medical school, and of course, we'll become parents.

Someday, I would like to write a post in which I'm completely open and frank about the hard times/fighting we've endured. But for now, I'm content to end on a happy note :)

Interview with My Grandparents

So for one of my classes I had to interview my grandparents about their experiences in the past with the media. I am supposed to post the transcript to the internet, so here it is. It probably will be really boring for any of you to read, but here is what I learned from doing this:

My grandparents are really neat people. Not that I didn't think that before, but they just have some really interesting stories.

From listening to the recorded interview and transcribing it all, I realized that older people are so much more welll-spoken than our generation. They never say "like" and I say it like a million times ;) But seriously, they just are more poised in their language selection. Does that make sense?

Also, I think it would be really neat to do regular recorded interviews with my grandparents for posterity's sake. Like I said, they have so many cool stories and who actually knows if they're recorded anywhere? I think my grandpa has done a really good job of recording his life history, but there's something about hearing their voices that makes it special.

I love my grandparents and the good example they have set for me about the value of hard work and sacrifice. They built the home they still live in with their own hands. And then they built a cabin in the woods. It is one of my most favorite places in all the world. The best story Grandpa told me in our interview was that when my dad (their oldest of 3 kids) was serving a mission, Grandpa milked cows to earn some extra money to support my dad on his mission in Taiwan. Grandpa was a schoolteacher so it wasn't like he was raking in the dough. But he took on extra work so that he could help my dad out. I admire him and respect him for that. I know how much my dad's mission meant to him and I'm sure he was grateful for the support.

Although Grandpa is a little quirky and Grandma snores really loud, I'm so glad I have them in my life. They always came to major life events and they're planning on coming to my college graduation in April. They told me their only worry is that Chantel (my cousin) and I might be walking at the same time! They are so sweet and I love them!

Here is the transcript (for my assignment's sake, but also for posterity.)

David Storey and Audrey Bell Bean Oral History Project

Interview with Dave and Audrey Bean

Date of Interview: December 6, 2010; Interviewer in Provo, Utah; Interviewees in LaGrande, Oregon (done by telephone)

Interviewer: Courtney Bready

Transcriber: Courtney Bready

Begin Recording 1

Courtney:        It’s Monday, December 6^th and I’m talking with Dave and Audrey Bean, my grandparents about their experiences with the media. Before I began recording, I just asked them to share what their memories are as far as their exposure to the media is concerned. Now say that again, Grandma.

Audrey:           Well when I first, when we first had TV, I was a kid and it was black and white and it was rather fuzzy I should say, you know it wasn’t really clear.

Dave:               And about an 8 inch screen.

Audrey:           And it was… boy were we tickled to death.

Dave:               It doesn’t get any better than this.

Courtney:        Do you remember how old you were?

Dave:               Pardon?

Courtney:        Do you remember how old you were?

Dave:               Oh gosh

Audrey:           I was in high school.

Dave:               Yeah, 18 maybe, 17.

Courtney:        Cool.

Dave:               Now radio programs. Years ago they used to have some radio programs like, uh, The Shadow, and they’d say “The Shadow knows” and it was a mystery. And they had Sam Spade who was a detective. What was the show Audrey where they had the creaking door? They’d always open the door and it squacked? It’d make your blood run cold.

Audrey:           I can’t remember.

Dave:               But then on TV there is a program that’s been running for years, which we still enjoy watching and that’s Perry Mason.

Courtney:        Oh yeah!

Dave:               Haha. But television now, I think they’re trying to do something which has been needful for a long time. You can be sitting watching TV and half asleep and all of a sudden they kick into an ad and the sound level about three times as many decibels as you were getting before

Courtney:        Mm hmm

Dave:               And that is very irritating.

Courtney:        Yes it is, I agree. Eric and I were just talking about that the other day.

Dave:               Yeah. Oh, what else?

Courtney:        Do you remember, like, any major events that you heard about on the radio or saw on TV?

Dave:               Well, starting out major events on the radio was the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Courtney:        Mm hmm

Dave:               I was five years old when that happened and I didn’t know why my parents were listening to the radio on Sunday, because they never did that.

Courtney:        Oh.

Dave:               And uh, why my mother was crying, I didn’t realize that, uh, gee I had an 18-year-old brother that was gonna be subject to the draft and so on and so I well remember that.

Audrey:           So do I. I remember going in and sitting in. We were, as I remember we were in Boise, living in Boise at the time and then mother had uh room that had sliding glass doors where the living room was and us kids couldn’t go in there unless we were nice and clean

Courtney:        mm hmm

Dave:               SO you never went in there huh?

Audrey:           Oh yeah, we did. But uh, you opened those doors and we went into this radio and all sat down around the on the floor and listened to that. And that was really quite a big event. A very big event.

Courtney:        Right.

Dave:               Well another thing, since you didn’t limit the media, I guess we can cover anything.

Courtney:        Yeah, anything.

Dave:               Uh, when we were kids, we would go to the theater where they showed movies and before they would show them, they always had news reels.  And I remember lots and lots of news reels that uh, showed exactly what was going on and where in the second World War and when we were fighting in the Pacific and fighting in Eurpoe and so on and they’d run the news reels always before they would show the movie.

Courtney:        That’s cool. I didn’t know that.

Dave:               And uh, that you know, we didn’t have television at that time so that was the only way we got to really see what was going on. Do you remember those Audrey?

Audrey:           Oh yes.

Dave:               Yeah.

Courtney:        So would people, did people ever go to the movies just to watch the news reels?

Dave:               Oh probably. But at least, and see since we didn’t have television, the movie theaters were extremely popular. We had oh three or four  here in LaGrande.

Courtney:        Oh really?

Dave:               Let’s see, we had the Liberty, the State, the Grenada, and then we put in the drive-in theater so I guess we had four.

Courtney:        Wow.

Dave:               And uh, people went to the movies a lot because there wasn’t any television so that was the best source of visual entertainment.

Courtney:        Right.

Dave:               And besides, you could get a sack of popcorn for a dime, you could get a 12 ounce soda pop for a nickel, and a good sized candy bar for a nickel.

Courtney:        Well that’s certainly changed, hasn’t it?

Dave:               Uh yeah. Only now I get my popcorn free because I get it at Bronson’s Lumber when I go.

Audrey:           Well and another thing about the movies Courtney is that if you were ever to see a movie with a couple uh, and if they ever went into the bedroom, it was twin beds. I mean, it’s noth—the movies were not like they are today.

Courtney:        Yeah

Dave:               You hardly ever saw people smoking and drinking in the movies either.

Courtney:        Oh really?

Dave:               Way back when. And kissing was very limited, shall we say. They weren’t trying to slobber all over each other or chew on each other, anything like that.

Courtney:        Huh.

Dave:               Like you see now.

Audrey:           Does that help you any?

Courtney:        Yeah, keep going.

Dave:               Or does that add to the confusion?

Courtney:        No, I, I like it. Um, do you remember, let’s see what was I gonna ask? Um, did you, you guys had a TV when you had kids, right?

Dave:               Yeah.

Corutney:        Did you always have it?

Dave:               I don’t remember.

Audrey:           What was the question again?

Dave:               If we had a TV when we had kids. Whether we always had it.

Audrey:           Uh, no we got our first TV. I had a camera, that I had bought when I was working. A real nice camera. And I was able to sell that camera, or trade that camera for a TV set to go into our 10 by 55 foot trailer. And that was back when Jeff and Jeanette were babies. And that was about our first TV.

Courtney:        OH, OK.

Dave:               And it seems to me that way back when that the news media was a lot less biased than what you see now.

Courtney:        Oh yeah

Dave:               That you could pick up a newspaper and you could count on learning what was going on and you’d get it from a, more or less a neutral viewpoint.

Courtney:        Mm hmm

Dave:               Rather than trying to scew it right or elft or who  knows which way.

Audrey:           They just reported the news, that’s exactly what they did, they didn’t try to embellish it or anything, they just reported the news.

Dave:               But to give you an example, uh, we have a good friend here in LaGrande who has a son who is Jim’s age and he worked for a big newspaper back East, Chicago I think. Anyway, he told his father, very proudly, “We don’t report the news, we make the news.”

Courtney:        Hmm.

Dave:               And that is what is so irritating and probably why very few people really trust the news media.

Courtney:        Yeah, that’s true.

Dave:               By the way, he got fired.

Courtney:        Oh really?

Dave:               For plagiarism.

Courtney:        Oh, I thought he was supposed to be making the news.

Dave:               Well, he made the news alright, but he made somebody else’s news.

Courtney:        Yeah.

Dave:               And he got canned.

Courtney:        That’s funny. Um do you remember, you talked about Pearl Harbor, do you remember, and you listened to that on the radio, right?

Dave:               Yes.

Courtney:        Do you remember any wars, war coverage or anything on TV?

Dave:               We didn’t have TV

Courtney:        Not that one, but like, later.

Dave:               Which war?

Courtney:        Um, any of them, later.

Dave:               There was no television coverage of the Second World War.

Courtney:        Right.

Dave:               So I don’t know… the first TV coverage I may have seen of the wars, probably, I don’t even remember if we had any TV coverage of the Korean war. The Vietnamese War, yes.

Courtney:        I think it was Vietnam that was the first one.

Dave:               Yeah. Now here’s just a little footnote. Television was invented by Philo Farnsworth.

Courtney:        Mm hmm. We talked about him

Dave:               Who was, I believe the uncle of my favorite missionary companion.

Courtney:        Oh really?

Dave:               Yep. Lynn Farnsworth who married Mary Smith, J. Reuben Clark’s granddaughter.

Courtney:        Huh.

Dave:               Mary, Mary Clark, J. Reuben Clark’s granddaughter.

Courtney:        That’s cool.

Dave:               Yeah, I thought so too. I got to go to the wedding. Anyway, and my, my missionary companion never mentioned that, never bragged about it or anything. He was just cool.

Courtney:        That’s cool. We actually get to go visit Philo Farnsworth’s grave for some extra credit points, so

Dave:               Ah. Where is it?

Courtney:        It’s in Provo—the Provo Cemetery

Dave:               Uh huh. Because uh, Lynn Farsworth grew up in Beaver, Utah.

Courtney:        Oh, OK

Dave:               Yeah and there’s lots of Farnsworths around. He’s currently in uh, I think Scottsdale, Arizona. In fact, when we picked your father up from his mission, we came through that area and stopped in and visited Lynn Farnsworth and his wife.

Courtney:        That’s neat.

Dave:               Anyhow. OK. Going back years ago, there were comic strips in the newspapers, the Sunday funnies and what have you. One of them was Dick Tracy. Well, Dick Tracy had cute little wrist radios that they could communicate with back and forth to find out what was going on in town you know where they needed the police and what have you. I thought, man that’s cool. Won’t get any better than that. And then years later in Dick Tracy they had little picket sized televisions on their wrists and I thought, that’ll never happen. But uh, consider what we have now in the world of technology and Dick Tracy was just ahead of his time.

Courtney:        That’s true.

Dave:               Yeah.

Audrey            :           And there was Flash Gordon.

Dave:               Oh yeah. That’s another comic strip. OK now here’s one for you talking about media… You didn’t say we had to limit it to the US.

Courtney:        No.

Dave:               In Russia, during the Cold War, there were two major newspapers: Pravda and Itsvestsa I think or Itsvestia. Anyway, one of them, translated means “The Truth” and the other one translated means “The News.” I had a Russian landlady in Berlin and she told me that the saying in Russia behind closed doors was, “there is no news in The Truth and there is no truth in The News.”

Courtney:        Huh.

Dave:               That’s how much they thought of their media because it was totally controlled and in many nations of the world, that’s the case: the news media are controlled by the government and they tell you what they want you to hear and it’s just plain, flat-out brainwashing. I went to a, a movie in Leisig, which is 175 miles behind the Iron Curtain. I went there in 1979, I sat in an audience amidst a bunch of uh, young men who were Russians, Russian Tank Corp, and they were showing a movie which was primarily propaganda about Mother Russia and how wonderful and how beautiful it is and they were all cheering, “Oh go Mother Russia, oh tremendous.” I thought, “how can you swallow this?” The answer is because they never heard anything else.

Courtney:        Hmm.

Dave:               In fact, when they had Russian troops in Germany, and in East Germany and East Berlin and so on, we were told that when they sent those troops home, that they had to spend time in Siberia to be re-trained and re-programmed because even though the East Germany economy was terrible, it was so much better than what they had in Russia that they didn’t dare send them straight home and let them talk about what they had seen.

Courtney:        Wow.

Dave:               Like, running water, indoors.

Courtney:        Wow.

Dave:               Flushing toilets, things like that. So the news media in many nations of the world is totally controlled by the government that controls the country.

Courtney:        Interesting.

Dave:               Fortunately, we’re not at that point in this country, but there sure is a lot of news media that is controlled by somebody that I don’t care for.

Courtney:        Yeah.

Dave:               So as long as we still have news media that puts out both sides, we’ve got some hope. Once that ends, we’re in trouble.

Courtney:        Yeah. Well there’s so many more sources now for news that it’s easier to get both sides I think.

Dave:               Well, they want to put an end to people like Rush Limbaugh and uh, Bill O’Reilly, Fox News, things like that because they’re very conservative and far right and “we don’t want that”

Courtney:        of course. Well, can you think of anything else?

Dave:               I don’t know, can we think of anything else Audrey?

Audrey:           No I can’t, really. Unless you ask a question and we can come up with something.

Dave:               I do, OK I’ll tell you a story about something that I vividly remember.

Courtney:        OK.

Dave:               I was teaching a class, a ninth grade, low level math class, it was the bottom of the bottom of the ninth grade in math ability. When we heard about the assassination of President Kennedy, so I just happened to have a radio in my room and we stopped talking about math and I turned on the radio and we listened and talked about it and so on. And it really had quite an effect on those kids. So even though they had very low ability in math, they still had an understanding of what was going on and what was happening.

Courtney:        Mm hmm.

Dave:               Now, here’s one, you probably can’t use this. When your father was on a mission, I milked cows to help support him on a mission. And you go out in the barn and the cows don’t talk to you very much, they’re just kind of boring and I had a radio that I would take out there and I played the radio in the barn and as long as I was listening to news or whatever, things were OK. But when they started playing the kind of music that is on our local radio stations, the cows would get nervous and milk production went down. So the media has an effect, not only on people, but on animals. And so I stopped playing the local radio stations and I took a small cassette player out there and I played Book of Mormon tapes and things like that and, or I would play classical or semi-classical or easy-listening music and the cows were fine. I don’t know what would have happened if I had tried country western, they might have gotten all excited. But anyway, it just pointed out to me that the tempo and the beat of the music coming across the media had an effect on the cows and on milk production.

Courtney:        That’s interesting.

Dave:               And so, they say, music calms the beast. Well, it depends on what kind of music.

Courtney:        Right.

Dave:               And it depends on whether you’re talking about a two-legged or a four-legged beast. Because I’ve seen kids get so hyper and stirred-up because of the type of music they’re listening to.

Courtney:        Mm hmm.

Dave:               And in the Church, we’re cautioned to be careful what you listen to. And with good reason.

Courtney:        Definitely.

The Bready Bunch

What? Two people isn't much of a "bunch" you say? Fine then. We'll make it three. :)

June 18, 2011