Thank you Written to Home Teacher

Today our neighbor who happened to be our home teacher before Bryce left on his mission, paid us a visit with an old envelope. Inside was a thank you that I had made at least 4 years ago. Dallin had addressed the envelope and inside Bryce had written thanking our home teacher for helping him with some scout badges. It was signed by Bryce and Dallin.
Bro. _____ my mom wants me to give you this card. I don't know why you would want it, but she is getting really ornery about it so here it is. Thank for helping me with Scouts and taking me flying and boating they were both way fun.
I was impressed that this great home teacher hung on to that thank you and had to laugh when he told me that it was probably one of a kind. He should see some of the doozies I happened to stumble across through the years! Pure Bryce.

Bryce and Dewgoolicious

Serving others

Bryce wrote some pretty profound things: in his journals, letters, etc. One thing that I have consistently found as I've been going through his "small plates" (missionary notes journal) is that he loves to quote himself. I really get a kick out of that. Here's an "Elder Christensen" quote that I stumbled across today.

“To love someone you must serve them, to want to serve someone start by serving them.” Elder Christensen

Missing Bryce --6 months down

It has been six months since Bryce woke me up in the night and told me he had just gotten an email from BYU saying he had been accepted. BYU had started on Monday and it was now Tues. He was all signed up for UVU and the next morning when he came up was insistent that he go ahead and attend the classes he was enrolled in just for that day. I couldn't figure out why he didn't want to go straight to BYU and get started until later when I realized that he had made arrangements with friends to meet them at UVU and he said to me that morning that he just wanted to go to his classes! So he came up Wednesday morning just in time for family prayer wearing his favorite red jacket from DI that was really a girl's jacket from a club in England. He ran out the door after prayer only to return to give me a hug and his dad a fisted high five. He drove off in the RAV4 that we had just gotten the week before, nervous to start his first day of college. I have reflected often on that morning with the light coming in from the dining room window as we knelt down in a circle. I am grateful that the last remembrances of Bryce are kneeling together in prayer and for my morning hug good bye. I had an 18 year old friend of Bryce's in Africa write me that Bryce would tell how I would wake Bryce up each morning when he was home before his mission for family prayer. Bryce began the tradition of a "stair prayer" as we began to call it because Bryce never made it all the way past the stairs to come up for morning prayers. He would park at the top of the stairs hoping for a few more minutes of shut eye while everyone else gathered near him. I am grateful that when the family was younger, I insisted that they never leave the house without giving their mom a hug good bye. I know Bryce is in a better place but he has sure left a hole in our family, especially at prayer time and in my heart. Love you Bryce.

Bryce Riding an Ostrich

Bryce and 6 month mission mark April 2007

Bryce Leaving His Mark

Kim and I went to The Canyons on Monday. We just wanted to feel closer to Bryce so we went where he loved to go and spent his last days on earth. It was straight up and we didn't make it to "99" but we did feel some healing and closeness as we stood on a peak, looking out over the resort. When we came home and I was sweeping the back patio, I began to make a mental list of places that Bryce left his "mark". The picnic table had cuts where he attempted to skateboard on the top of the table. There on the patio was the epoxy that dripped from his long board that he was building. In the garage was the shape of his long boards cut into the carpet as he was sawing the wood. In the kitchen were the chairs with scratches in the seats from his shoes as he stood on the chairs. The facing on the long cupboards have gaps in the wood where he hung on the doors as he would stare into the shelves looking for food. In our bedroom is the dresser with long cuts made by a nail or pen on the facade made by Bryce when he was bored joined with squiggly lines on the desk in the Den. In his room are his famous painted walls sporting Janis Joplin, Bob Marley, Sherlock Holmes blowing bubbles, Mr. Handy and Anonymous.
These marks that were once a source of frustration and contention between us at times are now a source of comfort and reminders that Bryce truly did live and was full of life and always doing something in our home. Thank heavens for little boys.