Where'd you get your name???

Today was a wonderful day.... whirl-wind...but all very good.

Got up early with Lawson to get him off

to school at 6:30am for his field trip to St. Augustine.

Came home and got ready for my temple trip with Jill.

I was very excited to be going.

Once again it has been a while since I have attended.

I found out at a recent GNO that Jill goes weekly.....and I thought....

dang it - what is my problem?

why am I not going on a weekly....or at the very least, a monthly basis?

with all of my sweet time and flexible freedom there is no excuse.

Soooooooo....we were off.

She met me at our place at 7:40am. 

I sent M and R off for the free breakfast at school,

asked E to shut the garage, and bid him a grande day, 

and we were cruisin in our van; 

which Kev filled the tank, aired the tires, and did a quick
oil change for last night!!!  

Can you believe the wonderfulness?

Jill is a great talker....

or maybe I mean to say she is great to talk to....she likes to
delve deep into your psyche.

She asks probing questions, and is a good listener.

She has some pretty amazing life experiences to share,
 and is a lot of fun to be around.

Well, I was in the middle of telling my life story and she said,

Now tell me about your kid's names,

I have always thought they were so interesting.

OK - sure, I'd love to.....

Well, Ethan Jet is named after Ethan Hunt from the movie
Mission Impossible.

His middle name is Jet because Kevin loves planes
and thought it would be cool.

Ryker Ace comes from one of the lists of names my mom sent.

........the what?

Yeah, after we had Ethan and knew we were having
another boy the name lists started.  

We still lived in Utah at that time

but my mom would drop by list after list of names

she had jotted down and thought we might like.

At first I told her not to bother.

Mom, you don't need to do that.

We will figure it out.

Don't waste your time.....besides the names you send I
highly doubt we would ever choose.

But she never got discouraged or dissuaded.

We found Ryker on one of her lists of names.

It was perfect!

Ace because Kevin loves to fly....so naturally. 

My mom found the name Ryker on one of her ward phone lists.

I remember she would sit and watch the movie credits for name ideas,

scan the phone book, obituaries, names of book characters....you name it.

Jill was like, wow!  How nice of her to do that for you!

It hit me right then and there.

wow.

My mom did that for me.

That was a super nice thing my mom did.

That was a way my mom could be involved and helpful especially 

when we were far away and by ourselves.

I think Jill was as surprised as I was that I suddenly was unable
to continue with my story.

Are you ok?

yes, yes, it is nothing...

but dang that was such a sweet thing for my mom to do.

I was picturing all of those lists in my mind.

Thinking of the time she had spent thinking of me and
our little growing family.

For Lawson Hawk we had moved to FL.

I had come to rely on those name lists....

to the point that I was now asking my mom for more.

Mom, do you have another list ready to send?

yes, one is in the mail,

thank goodness, we are totally stumped on this little guy.

I rummaged around in my cedar chest when we got home this afternoon.

I was dying to see if I could locate any of those bad boys.

I was thrilled to come across the ripped out piece of note book paper in 

my moms unique cursive penmanship. 

- she gave two columns, first names and middle names, 

you will see she had caught on to the pattern Kevin had set.

First Names 

Cameron, Walker, Warner, Turner, Trane, Tracey, Nyland, Mattson,

Major, Lion, LAWSON, Heath, Guymon, Grange, Dutson,
Trent, Abney, Austin, Rhett, Holden, Kemble

Middle Names

Rocket, Bullet, Solo, Glide, Pilot, Cub, Dive, Buzz, Chopper, 

Stick, Torque, Fly, Hawker, Gunn, Buck, Falcon

So you can see the caliber of names we were sifting through....
but there it was.
Lawson...!  Yes!  You did it again mom!!

You nailed it.

You can also see she was dangerously close on the middle
name as well, she has Hawker, 

Kevin landed on Hawk, after the E2 Hawk-eye.

McCauley Tess was all Kevin - 

he had always called that if we had a girl he got to name her him self.

Great....have at it.

(if I like it you can do just that)

McCauley is named after a propeller manufacturing company, 

and Tess is from a book he read in Collage, Tess of the d'Urbervilles,

he gave it to me the Christmas after she was born,

I thought it was a very good read as well.....kinda on the sad side.

Once I had started going through my cedar chest I came across

letter after letter from my mom.

Some she had written to me when I was in young women's,

some were birthday wishes,

others Mother's Day letters.

It really sounded like I had some tough times back then.

She was my biggest fan and supporter.
(still is)

These letters are my little pot-o-gold 

(in honor of St. Pats Day).
Thank you mom.

We did make it to the Orlando Temple.

I love these photos -

the "extra" coolness is thanks to my new phone app - Instagram,

thanks to Shelly for hooking me up with it.

Certainly I know that the temple is beautiful all on its own....

it is not all about being cool.

But I still really love it.

When we walked in we immediately had a sweet surprise,

Suzanne was our greeter. 

Yes! Sweet!

We did a few sealings that Jill wanted to get done,

and then off to a session.

It was jam packed, which was crazy at 10:00am on a Wed.

They were all people from our stake, 

Palm Bay 1 and 2 wards.

There was a couple there going through for their first time,

and then they were getting sealed.

It was fun to see all the familiar faces.

The other thing I loved seeing was an entire row of missionaries.

I guess most of these young men had worked with this couple 

in one way or another over time and they were there in 

support and celebration.

I thought Jill and I had the best seats in the house - 

back row, right center edge. 

I had a good view of the entire room and its occupants.

I was marveling at the mixed bag of people we all were.

I was enjoying seeing those young men sitting all lined up.

Attentive, wholesome, happy, clean, fresh, filled with love and the 

joy of the gospel, and being in the place where that love flows 

so generously.

I was marveling that Ethan will be there in no time.
I was picturing him in those seats and white clothing.

Smiling and happy to be serving the Lord.

When it came time to stand and change, etc.

The older lady next to me was really struggling.

I actually had paid her no mind up to that point.

She was dropping sashes, and this and that, and really almost 

looking at her clothing like she had never seen 

anything like it in her life.

I was done and helped her get things squared away,

tied, hooked, and set as appropriate.

In my mind as we were going along, I had determined that

this poor older sister was likely starting into the beginning stages of 

dementia, or alsehimers (which I cannot come close enough to
spelling correctly to even have it pull up in the dictionary
....but it is too late to care right now),

because I noticed that her clothing was

so brand new, it was crispy fresh, and had high class (easy) hooks

instead of ties.  I thought maybe her grown

children had purchased her new temple clothing for 

her so she could continue to keep coming and doing what

she loved, and have it be easier on her to figure out.

nope.

that wasn't it.

After we were settled back in our seats she asked how long
 it had taken me to get the hang of everything....

I said, 17 years.....

she did not look encouraged.

Why, what do you mean?

Well, I have only been a member of the church for 2 years,

this is my 3rd time through the temple.

I looked at her then.

I really looked.

I loved her.
She has no children, her husband is not a member, her parents died long ago,
but she still really misses them.

I saw her with my eyes opened.

I saw the room clearer, but more softly.

I saw our differences and embraced them as our
Father would.

Look at all of us kids of His bunched up in this room.

trying to do our best.

muddling trough. 

Sometimes I think I need to go to the temple and have

"an experience"

I wait to "feel something"

"see something"

"make a ""special"" connection".

Every time I go to the temple I feel a deep sense of love.

Deep, thorough, complete.

I realized today that that is enough.

So much more than enough.
.......................
excerpt from mom's letter : July 7, 00 
(two months before Lawson is born)
How about those names - do any of them click?  We sure do miss your boys!
They are the greatest!  We would love to be watching the Steel Days parade on your 
corner this Saturday with you all.
Your apricot tree isn't looking very good.
Half of it seems fine, but the rest is struggling.
There is a big tabby cat that sits on your front porch, quite at home.......
how about Darren, Tory, Couric, Bud, Beniker, Cobb, 
Clay, Cade, Taylor, Hays, or Hayes, Heston, York, 
Juddson, Marsden, Carson, Berry, Davis, Archer, Pauly????