Aunt Connie found this precious letter in her file and sent the original to David Meredith and the copy to me. When I opened it yesterday, I was overwhelmed with memories of the cutest little red headed boy in the kindergarten at St Paul's Catholic School in 1981. This is a letter that John dictated to his cousin David Meredith:

January 22, 1981

Dear David,
Can you come to our house after you come home from Switzerland? If you do have a suitcase, you can pack it. If you don't, you can bring a backpack.

If you want to be a policeman, you can come with me to the police station. Bring your standard plain old truck, and your gas man and your batman. I, John, will share with you all my Christmas toys.

Sorry David, I got an Empire Strikes Back book and my friend broke the trap door.

David, I am happy when you come back. I have never seen you before. Tell your Mom to read all of it.

I'm in kindergarten. How old are you? If you're six or five now, I'll be happy - either one.

David, my Mom is going to ask Matthew to come and bring his tie fighter.

In my school picture, I am wearing my uniform. I'll ask my teacher if my cousin, David can come to school. I can teach him all we do. He is new.

And then this masterpiece is signed in the most wonderful scrall across the entire page....John Bennion

The dear thing is that John and Wendy are at this exact time with Nathan. What fun to get a flashback to the way John was at that same age!

After a long time finally...

Mary Bennion's Talk. I uploaded it to this site here. http://www.lulu.com/content/263186. So if you want to hear it again, or you want to get it to someone else, click here to download it.

Washington DC Pt. 1

Here are some photos from Spring Break. We went to Washington DC, and saw the sights. While there we stayed with Mike and Rebecca and Margaret and Samuel. Below are some highlights. We loved the trip and recommend it highly!

Nathan and Katie in the Rosslyn Metro station near our hotel in Arlington.

All of us sitting at the WWII memorial on the east side of the Reflection Pool. The Lincoln Memorial is behind us. The pool is the site of the MLK "I Have a Dream" speech.

Inside the Lincoln Memorial. I like the lighting of this shot, and perspective that Wendy and the kids give to the statue of Lincoln.

This is shot from the Lincoln Memorial looking east to the Washington Monument and the Capitol.

This is Nate at the Vietnam Memorial. He is pointing out names of people in our family.

The White House shot from the northern tip of the Ellipse. Below that is the other side of the White House shot from the south-west corner of Lafayette Square.

NCAA Picks

Here are my picks (elite eight and on)
Duke v Texas --> Duke
Pitt v UCLA --> UCLA
UConn v UNC --> UConn
Ariz v Flor --> Ariz

Duke v UCLA --> UCLA
UConn v Ariz --> Ariz

UCLA v Ariz --> Ariz

Bring It.

FINALLY! John on Tron

First of all, I should say that I still enjoy Tron. In an era of CGI centered films and over the top action sequences (Exhibit 1 – King Kong from the Brontosaurus stampede through the bugs eating that guy headfirst), Tron is a fun story.

So here goes,

Acting – Thumb Up: I like Jeff Bridges in most everything and Bruce Boxleitner is not too shabby. The rest of the cast is also pretty good.

Writing – Thumb Middle: Aside from a pretty preposterous premise, the writing is good. In today’s world some of the terms seem silly, but taken in its time it is great. My criteria for writing is not too high, and the writing does not detract from the story. There is one notable exception, “Shall we dance?”.

Cinematography – Thumb Up: I liked the zooms, and use of contrast to add to the effects. Again, does not distract from the story.

Special Effects – Thumb Up: I like that they are not over the top. The lightcycles are still pretty cool, as are the disks.

Overall – Thumb Up: Definitely worth a rental. Get the new DVD with all the extras if you like documentary stuff. For more information see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tron_(film). Below is a treasure to pique your memories.

Dang Gina!

I just finished teaching my 115 class. I was observed today by one of the professors over English Composition. I showed a clip from The Fugitive--the train wreck scene. I was hoping to help my students see how to go beyond plot line to analysis (ie--not only what's going on, but how do we know it's an action film, how do we feel when we watch it, why etc...). And of course there were BAD WORDS which I didn't really think about until we watched it in front of my professor! Then they really stuck out. I hope I don't get fired! Ooops!!! It's a cool scene though. And a great film.

John's Movie Reviews

In the spirit of Joe's Walk the Line review, I am interested in reviewing one of the movies we watched recently. So below is a list of movies, you can choose one and I will review whichever one of them.

1 - Tron
2 - Herbie the Love Bug
3 - Herbie Rides Again
4 - Care Bears the Movie
5 - Care Bears 2 (although this may be the same review as Care Bears the Movie)
6 - Extreme Sports Goofy
7 - Star Wars

Let me know.

Walk the Line (Review of Joe's Date last night)

Well it may surprise some of you but I went on a date last night and I went (with very strong recommendations) to see Walk the Line in theaters. The Date turned out well but I had mixed feelings about the movie. Firstly I think Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon gave excellent performances as J. R. Cash, and June Carter. I was amazed to hear the songs of Johnny Cash sung so well by Joaquin Phoenix, but yes they were fully performed by him.(no dubbing was used for him) I also enjoyed seeing such a complex movie but I was not sure what the screenwriter wanted to tell me. This movie dealt with many uncomfortable subjects, like adultery, Drug abuse, and the effects of such things on your life and how this impacts the lives of those who are close to you. It was difficult for me to watch this happen to him and try to put it into perspective. It's tough for me to watch a movie that discusses the private life of a famous person in intimate detail without them being able to talk about it(If you didn't know Johnny Cash is dead and he is not able to comment). So it was a tough movie to sit through for me but the performances were an A+. I hope Joaquin gets an oscar for this performance, because it was incredible.
For a date this wasn't the best of movies, but Walk the Line ended on a happy note and Ice cream at the end allowed the date to be good (as my roomate says, any date that ends with Ice Cream is a good date).

Great Mentors in Literature, Film, and History

Here is my list, add comments or your own. Thanks to Don for the picture idea

1 - Obi Wan Kenobi to Luke(just watched the scene in the bar in Mos Eisley... incredible) (http://www.geocities.com/xtrafiles/BenCantina.gif)
2 - Mr. Miyagi to Daniel LaRusso (http://www.americanphoto.co.jp/pages/movie/HE/Previews/Plans-38241.jpg)
3 - That Guy who trains Van Damme to fight blind in whatever movie that was... Bloodsport? (http://www.movie-montage.com/images/upload/898p.jpg)
4 - Mickey to Rocky (http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/9709/10/meredith.obit/rocky.jpg)
5 - Gandalf to Frodo (http://img-fan.theonering.net/rolozo/images/rivoche/frodo_and_gandalf.jpg)
6 - Yoda to Luke (http://innocentbystander.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/yoda.jpg)
7 - Norman Dale to the Hickory Huskers (http://www.americanrhetoric.com/images/hoosiersintroteam.JPG)
8 - Abbé to Edmond Dantés (http://images.hollywood.com/images/4_1102955.jpg)
9 - Morpheus to Neo (http://matrix.thescarymonkeyshow.com/images/morpheus.jpg)
10 -Athos to D'Artagnan (http://www.wineintro.com/movies/threemusketeers/athos.jpg)
11 - Baloo to Mowgli (http://www.etek.chalmers.se/groups/EKAK/historia/97/pics/baloo.jpeg)
12 - Mrs. Weston to Emma (http://www.pemberley.com/wdl/Images/westons.jpg)
13 - The Master to Grasshopper in Kung Fu (http://fusionanomaly.net/kungfudoyouhear.jpg)
14 - Master Splinter to Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo (http://www.animezu.com/Anime/cels/pics/Teenage%20Mutant%20Ninja%20Turtles/Splinter/splinter01.jpg)
15 - Dumbledore to Harry (http://www.pottersrealm.com/albums/Chamber-of-Secrets/BabyFawkes.sized.jpg)

Grandpa's Touch

 

William Discovers Chuck E. Cheese's

William attended Ashlyn Dahmer's 2nd Birthday Party 

More Cowbell!

Although overplayed, still incredible.

http://www.youtube.com/w/Funny-SaturdayNightLive-Cowbell?v=2qkI3oxTc_0&search=snl%20walken%20cowbell

Fight Matchups

Who wins?

Anthony Hopkins vs. Paul Scofield
Macho Man Savage vs. Hulk Hogan
Mike Holmgren vs. Andy Reid
Rik Smits vs. Detlef Schrempf
David McCullough vs. Joseph Ellis
Coach Waterman vs. Joyce Block
Snake-Eyes vs. Storm Shadow
George Clooney vs. Matthew McConaghy
Mr. Knightley vs. Colonel Brandon
Hermione vs. Ginny
Joan Wright vs. Jon DeJong

Bring it.

Joseph Smith

On Pete's recommendation, I listened to the talk by Teryl Givens about Joseph Smith and his impact....I thought it was wonderful. It is so beautifully crafted, but it is more than that. I plan on purchasing it because I would like to have and use so many of the quotes that he uses. Worth a listen or a read. You go to the BYU website, click on speeches and you will find his there. It can be downloaded for a listen...it is about 40 minutes, but a worth the time.

Haircut Pt. 2 and a Cousin Picture

This morning Gregory was pretending to cut Wendy's hair. When he was done he said, "You Amy". After a pause, he added "I Don".

Wendy's Haircut

Hey everyone. Wendy cut her hair so we thought we would send a picture of her with her ponytail. She kept the ponytail and donated it to Locks of Love. Pretty neat. Here it is.

Cymru am byth!

Great news! I applied for a FLAS grant--a grant they offer at a couple of universities, including BYU to go and study an obscure foreign language in Europe over the summer--and got it! Tom Taylor is taking a group over to Wales for intense language study, so I'll be spending my summer in Wales! I'm so excited!

Memories of a HAPPY Day!!!!

 

Like Father Like Son

 

The Bride!