About Devri

We've been talking about family history a lot at church it seems, so I figured I should write some things down about me--things that I would like to know about my parents and grandparents. I came up with a list of questions/topics several months ago--maybe even a year ago, I can't remember. They are similar to the 30 Day Journal that I did a few years ago, but I'm not going to consign/constrict myself to doing it over thirty days. Here's the list I came up with:

• A childhood memory
• A favorite memory with your dad
• A favorite memory with your mom
• A favorite memory involving your dad's parents
• A favorite memory involving your mom's parents
• Memories of great-grandparents
• A strength you have
• A weakness you have
• Something you look forward to every year
• A super-power you wish you had
• A place you want to go
• A place you don't want to visit
• Your happy place
• Something from your past that you'd like to change
• Something silly that you like to do
• A person you'd like to meet
• What motivates you
• A skill you'd like to learn
• A skill you've mastered (or nearly)
• A secret ambition
• Something you're passionate about
• Something that you feel like you should be interested in, but you aren't
• 30 word soap box
• Favorite smell

I'm putting the answers to these on a separate tab entitled "About Devri". Enjoy! 

Panic Button

On the night of June 13, I had just changed Rachel into Jammies for the night, and since we were about out of wipes, I thought I'd hop online and order some from Amazon while I was still thinking about it. Facebook was open, and my eye was immediately drawn to this picture:

 I recognized the shed and the mountain. This was clearly taken from my neighbor's backyard. I quickly ran out the door to see for myself. In shock, I came back in and told Brian to come see. This was sometime between 9 and 10 p.m.

It's an understatement to say that I started to really panic. Earlier that day, Brian and I had been discussing the Colorado fire, and remembering how blessed we had been last summer. So, seeing those flames with the damage reports from the Colorado fires fresh in our minds, all I could think was, "Please not again!" The wind was blowing extra hard that night, and the fire had started much closer to our house than last time, just a little south of where the 2012 fire had stopped.

We tried to stay calm. After feeding Rachel and tucking her into bed, we took pictures of everything in our house so that we could remember what we owned in the event that our house caught fire. We talked about all the things that we would take with us this time. We turned on the news. We looked all over  Facebook. Thankfully, it looked like the fire was getting put out. I got in the car and drove up the hill to see what I could find. Brian stayed home and checked Twitter.

I saw a few flames, which I tried to capture on our camera. The long exposure makes them seem slightly worse than they really were. I talked with a couple of police men who were in charge of keeping citizens out of the way. Both said that the fire was contained, and that we most likely wouldn't have to worry about it. At least four different stations responded to the fire, and two hadn't even been used, at least that is what the police man said. The quick response along with the cold front had helped them get a quick hold on the flames. By morning, we couldn't even see any smoke.

Once again, we are so grateful that our home is safe and that the firemen were so diligent and quick to respond.

Michael and Abigail: The Saga Continues

Our friends, Steve and Colleen moved to the neighboring town back in March. We found out about a month ago. So, once we found that out, we arranged to meet up with them for Family Home Evening on June 10. First, we played at the splash--well, the kiddos did, anyway. Brian and I caught up with Steve and Colleen. And we decided to be better at staying in touch.

Michael and Abigail were fast friends again.  

After the splash pad, we headed to Steve and Colleen's for a quick lesson and a treat. There weren't any kisses this time, but they both fell apart when it was time for us to leave. We decided that we'll have to get together again soon. Which reminds me...

Tracy Aviary and Farewell Lunch with Camille

On June 4, we headed to Salt Lake to check out Tracy Aviary and see my friend Camille one last time before her family moves to Porto Rico for Dental school. Our Pass of all Passes grants free access on Tuesdays, and the Aviary is right next to Liberty Park--well, more like IN the park. We saw a Bobwhite, that quail made famous to me by my dad's Woodbadge days. Apparently they're rare? I did not know that. So, we had to take a picture of the little bird for my dad. 

(He's in the cage right next to the wire wall on the bottom right)

We also met this Condor that is as old as my parents:

Rachel had a nice ride in the stroller, and had a major explosion in the middle of the park, but what do you do? Thank goodness for diaper bags with wipes, hand sanitizer, and extra clothes. 

We met Camille, Noah, and Spencer outside the Aviary and then walked over to the park area for a picnic lunch. We ate. The kiddos played. Nothing too exciting, but time comfortably spent with a dear friend. 

 Michael wouldn't come and pose for any pictures. Doesn't he know that Camille is sort of an honorary aunt? She was one of my most favorite roommates.

 Isn't she such a beautiful mother? 

I got a little choked up saying good bye. At least both her family and Alex's family are in Utah, so they'll be visiting at least once a year. She assured me I'll be on the list of people to see. 

Thanks for being my friend, Mille. I will miss you!

See How She Grows

Rachel is just over a week away from being five months old, and I can hardly believe it! She is at a really fun stage where she just seems to be progressing so much all the time!

May 7

May 8

May 8

 May 20

 May 21

 May 22--Officially four months

 May 24

 May 27: Trying Rice cereal

 She didn't care much for it. 

May 29

May 31: Four month check-up

12 lbs, 5 oz--10.21 percentile

24.25 inches--33.13 percentile

16.25 inch noggin--65.16 percentile

That's right. Don't let those cheeks fool you; she's still pretty tiny for her age. 

On June 3, we took her swimming for the first time. She loved it! She loved kicking her little legs and floating around with us. I wish we'd have taken a camera.

June 7-She was giggling way more before Brian pulled out the camera. 

On Sunday, June 9, I was tickling her in church and she was giggling SO hard. She even let out a couple of really loud, high  pitched giggles. It was adorable, but I kind of felt bad at the same time, since it was in the middle of sacrament meeting. 

June 9--Bubble Blowing skills

June 11-Dancing at the community picnic. She had such a great time.  Even our Mayor, Mia Love, stopped to smile at Rachel and complimented her on how beautiful her smile is!

Today

We just can't get enough of this little girl!

Grillin' Like a Villain

After saving up for several months, we bought a grill! Brian bought it online from Sears in Salt Lake. Lea and Shayne kindly let us use their SUV to go pick it up, and so we invited them over for dinner the next day (Sunday) to help us break in the new grill. We stayed up until about midnight putting it together. All that remained to do was install the natural gas conversion kit. After church the next day, Brian went to work on the conversion kit. It took him an hour or two and then he went to hook it up to our gas line coming off of our house--and discovered that we needed a couple of parts to make them fit together. Since it was Sunday, that meant waiting until the next day to grill. So, when Lea & Shayne arrived for dinner, we disappointingly announced that we would be broiling dinner instead. '

But the next day, Memorial Day, we got the part, got it hooked up, and grilled for the first time on our new grill!

And, since then, we've been grilling just about every night. Corn on the cob, kabobs, chicken, steak, burgers, hotdogs, burgers, pineapple, and anything else we can think of!  We are LOVING this. Hello Summer!!!

Sibling Revelry

People consistently ask Michael, "Do you like being a big brother?" or "Do you like your new sister?" To answer these questions, I present the following evidence:

Exhibit 1: Michael is usually the first one up in the morning. He usually plays in his room or in the living room, and he's usually pretty quiet. I sleep until Rachel wakes up, usually somewhere between 8 and 9 in the morning. By the time I make it into Rachel's room to feed her, I find Michael standing on the arm of the rocking chair next to her bed, leaning over her and laughing with her. And often, I find her completely surrounded by toys, compliments of her doting brother.

I love finding them like this--him giggling and her grinning up at him in her huge, open-mouthed, toothless smile that lights up her whole face. 

Exhibit 2: Michael's duet with Rachel. Watch for her sigh at the end: 

Exhibit 3: 

Michael loves helping Rachel play with her toys.

Exhibit 4:

This is from a few days ago. Whenever Rachel is in the jumper, Michael insists that she faces him. And it looks like we've got another Saville who loves to dance!

Sometimes Michael gets upset when I lay Rachel down for a nap because he wants to play with her still.

I'll let you draw your own conclusions, but I would have to say that Michael LOVES being a big brother, and he absolutely adores his little sister.

Lara and Julia in Town

 Lara came into town for a week, and we all went to Farm Country. However, due to sleeping schedules (Julia's getting messed up and Rachel's being on time), we only got to have lunch with Lara, Julia, Lea, Shayne, Skyler, and Danny, and we missed doing any of the farm things with them. Oh well. Michael still got a pony ride and a wagon ride out of the deal, even if it wasn't with cousins. 

 (Side note: He almost looks like an Idaho farm boy...it's still weird to me to pay money to see Farm Animals.)

We hung out with Lara and Julia quite a bit. Julia was a little jealous whenever Lara held Rachel. Julia, don't you know that you and Rachel are going to be pals and that you will always be the apple of your mother's eye?

And Julia is DARLING! She is walking in the cute little toddle way that new walkers walk. She even puts her hand above her head when she walks. Adorable! 

 We did a girls' night out with the Saville cousins (meaning Brian's cousins) at California Pizza Kitchen. And we had so much fun that I didn't take any pictures. We also got together with Lara & Julia, Mom & Dad Saville, Lea, Shayne & their crew, and Shayne's family for a picnic/birthday party for Cole/Mothers' Day Party on Mothers' Day in a park in Lehi. Again, too lazy to take pictures.

We even got the two of them to ourselves when Lara and Julia came over to visit. We always feel cool when the visiting Saville relations have a one-on-one visit with just us. Lara's always been really good to do that.

It was great seeing you, Lara and Julia. Hopefully next, time, Julia will sleep better and we'll get to do more fun things! Miss you already.

S.W.A.T.

Back in October (yeah, I've been meaning to write this one for awhile), I was getting ready to take Michael in to the doctor. He'd been limping for a couple of days, and I was worried that something was wrong. I was starting to gather the stuff to head out the door when I glanced out my dining room doors and noticed seven police vehicles parked on the road out there. I thought, "What in the world is going on?"

I got onto my neighborhood Facebook page, my trusty source for local information, and found lots of moms posting things like, "What is going on, there is a police man with a gun out in my yard?" I looked out my front window and found several officers with guns pointed at my neighbor's house. These are the sweetest people you'll ever meet in your life. This wasn't making any sense. I checked out my laundry room door, and found a  police sniper taking cover behind Sam's house, gun trained on the previously mentioned neighbor's house.

I called the pediatrician to let them know that we probably wouldn't be able to make it as our neighborhood was in lock-down. And I posted myself in the office, trying to see what I could from my front window, and reading about what the other eyes in my neighborhood were seeing.This went on for what felt like FOREVER! I watched my neighbor's boys--two teenagers and an eleven year old--walk out of their house with their hands above their heads with several guns pointed at them. I heard from a neighbor that she watched them get cuffed. I watched the S.W.A.T. team approach my neighbor's door and go in. After several minutes, they came out, and all the officers lowered their guns. I watched them talking together. The boys were eventually un-cuffed and life in our neighborhood was allowed to resume.

The whole incident probably lasted an hour.

People coming home from work couldn't get into the neighborhood.

If we opened our doors, we were told, quite forcefully, to stay in our homes. A life-flight helicopter was brought in. A K-9 unit was brought in, as well as around 20 police vehicles and who knows how many officers from our city and our neighboring city. No one could leave. No one could come in. For an hour. At least school ended before it started.

And do you know what the fuss was about? A prank call.

Yup, that's right, a prank call.

Someone in California who played online games with someone who USED to live in that house called the police, told them that there was someone in their house and that their mom had been shot. And he the police the address of the house in our neighborhood.

What a selfish, inconsiderate, immature prank! To the people who think that this sort of thing is really funny (apparently it is/was quite popular), it is not funny. It is rude. It scares children. It makes mothers and fathers worry--especially when their neighborhoods are blocked off and they cant get to their kids, and they don;t know what is going on. Oh, and one of those sweet, innocent boys was almost shot because he was so scared that he couldn't move to follow the instructions of the officer who was shouting at him.

So, before you reach for the phone, thinking it will be fun to S.W.A.T your friend, think again. Do the refrigerator running prank call instead.

Field Trip to the Police Station

For May's field trip for Michael's preschool group, we went to the Police Station in town. It's not a very large police station, but we did learn that the police officers carry toys in their vehicles in case they are called to an incident that a kid is involved in. I thought that was cool. And all the kids got to try out the handcuffs. 

And everyone got a badge, including Rachel:

Towards the end of the tour, Michael announced to one of the officers, "I want to be a bad guy!"  I guess the visit didn't really sink in. 

Adventures in Belarus - Churches (and very small rocks)

I started this post about 2 months ago when I got back, and just never finished it.  I think this covers my favorite part of my trip and the most cultural filled portion of it, so I thought it was important to go back and finish it.  Most especially, some of these stories I still haven't told anyone and wanted to get down on paper/online before I forget.

On the only Sunday I was in Belarus, we had an opportunity to visit the branch in Minsk.  I was thinking it would be about 5-10 members with senior missionaries (the LDS church is not officially recognized in Belarus, but they have welfare/service missionaries there) as the branch President, etc.  I was extremely surprised that they had enough people packed in the little building they met in to form a full ward.  I think it was at least double the size of the university branch back in Topeka, with enough Elders to definitely form a ward.  It was general conference that weekend, but because they were on such a time delay, they were going to watch it the next week.  Someone sat behind us during each meeting and translated for us the entire time.  We actually sat next to a senior missionary couple from Idaho, the Johns, who were there serving a welfare mission.  They didn't speak much Russian either, so I think they have someone translate for them every week.  We ended up eating dinner with them afterwards, and it was awesome seeing the missionary efforts that are going on in Belarus even though the Johns cannot proselyte unless approached first by natives.  I would say that their baptismal font was well used and will be used even more in the near future.


On the 11th of May, now almost a month past, they were going to meet together for a special party celebrating 20 years that the LDS church was formed in Belarus.  I didn't think much of it except as an excuse to eat food, but later the Johns explained the significance of it.  After the Iron Curtain fell in eastern Europe, a president was elected in Belarus.  While at first it seemed that he was going to establish more a democracy (after all, he was the president), it soon turned to more communist rule.  The end result was that there was a small window of opportunity where religions were welcomed into the country, and then shortly thereafter all new ones were barred.  The church was fortunate enough to get its foot in the doors (so to speak) during this time, but the communist laws established just after prevented it from being officially recognized and true missionary efforts beginning there.  The laws said that no religion would be recognized until it had been present in the country for at least 20 years.  Maybe now you can see why it was so significant that they were celebrating 20 years of the LDS church in Belarus.  They are hoping that this year or the next, the church can be officially recognized, missionaries would be welcomed in, and the people could be taught the gospel more openly.

While at the building used for church, Trev (my traveling companion) pointed out a piece of paper that had a list of names with numbers next to it.  The names were transliterated names of the 12 tribes of Israel, and the numbers were the totals of men and women identified as being from those tribes that have been given their Patriarchal blessing in Belarus/Minsk.  It was very interesting to see that while most of them were from Ephraim, there were a LOT from other tribes as well.  It was very different than what you would see in the states I believe.  Also, we were told a story of one of the members in the branch and how he converted while he was working for the KGB.  I don't really want to put that story only, but ask about it sometime if you see me, it's really fascinating what some had to go through to come into the church.

Trev travels all over for work, and I mean all over the world, all the time.  He said that probably more in Minsk than in any other city he's seen, the people were kind and extremely religious.  While many other countries have many little chapels and cathedrals, he said that the ones he had been in in Minsk were the most filled he had ever seen.  I got a chance to witness it for myself, and I'll talk about it in just a minute, but I had the distinct impression while I was there that if the gospel could be taught openly in Minsk, it would just explode there.  The branch would quickly turn into a ward which would quickly turn into a stake, and then multiple stakes.  The people there are ready for it, they are looking to the Lord.  Their government may be oppressive, but they are still hopeful and wonderful and are looking up for answers instead of being beaten down.

During one of the weeknights, we did a little sightseeing and saw a couple of amazing churches.  The first was a little wooden church.  It was Greek Orthodox (I believe, most churches there are).

Apparently we came in the middle of Vespers.  I don't actually know what Vespers means (except for some Christmas concert we went to when we were little at Washburn University), but the people stood in this relatively large room while a few people chanted behind this set of doors where the doors and wall depicted murals and paintings of New Testament events/people.  I wish I could have gotten a picture of the inside, but it definitely was not the time or the place as the room was crammed with people, no one said a word (except for the chanting people), and some were even kneeling in prayer.  It was very somber and very - spiritual is the only word for it I think.  While I couldn't understand a word they were saying, I felt the faith of this people and again had the thought that the Gospel was ready to be preached there.  We actually skipped out before the end, but we did see the minister (preacher, father, bishop?) come out in his fancy robes, chanting and swinging a jar of burning incense.  He came through all of the people, including right by us, and swung the incense at us and probably pronounced prayers on us.  It was very interesting and sobering actually.

This is just outside the church and must be the baptismal font.  You can see the statue (pictured below) near the top right of the picture, and I guess water flows down from it into the font, and then they walk down those steps to be baptized.  I was surprised how similar this is to an LDS baptismal font, but then again, how many ways can you do a big pool of water you walk into?

I don't know why this was Moses, but the area in front of him (including down to the waters and beyond) was depicted as splitting apart like he was parting the Red Sea.  It was awesome to look at, and you can see this fish in the foreground here.

This church was MUCH bigger and right next to the other wooden one.  We didn't go inside since it seemed to be under construction.

The stairs leading up to the church.  This doesn't give a good indication of scale.

But this picture does. That's me in front - yeah, it's huge.

A churchly figure in front of the white church.  I don't know who it was, although it might have said it in front but I couldn't read it.

Another view of him.

This is my last post about Belarus.  All in all, the trip to Belarus was very "interesting".  That's what I keep calling it when people ask me about it.  It was definitely an experience - I don't think I'll be running back there anytime soon, but mostly for the food and feeling of being watched.  The people there were all incredibly friendly, happy, and very faithful.  I look forward to going back someday after the church is opened officially there.

Adventures in Belarus - Food and Language

I know this is old, see my next post too :)


I was a little worried going to Belarus about the food. I didn't think it would be really crazy food, and I just heard that it was a lot of heavy foods like potatoes and such.  And that's what it was, a lot of potatoes, even potato pancakes.  The problem was that the food selection was so bland and boring that everything was so unappetizing by the end of the week.  We even went out to eat one night at a restaurant and it tasted about the same as the food at the hotel.  Looking back, I think my LEAST favorite part of the entire trip was the food.  Bland, bland, bland.  I did try caviar, which had more of a taste than most things I ate there.
For the first time in my life that I can remember, I felt truly and completely illiterate in Belarus.  It wasn't just that I couldn't understand what the words meant, the letters all looked like gibberish - Cyrillic is quite different from Latin based characters.  Even the ones that look the same actually sounded different.  Fortunately, for most things at the hotel we had English translations, such as a meal that my traveling companion ordered at the restaurant that said it was "filled with language".  I don't know if "language" tasted any good, but it looked a bit like legumes if you ask me.
One more little random story before I finish - on the way in on the plane flight from Frankfurt, we noticed a guy was being escorted by police everywhere he went.  He boarded the plane before everyone else and was immediately surrounded by armed guards on arrival in Minsk.  Our best guess was that he was being deported, although he must have been into some bad stuff to get deported back INTO Minsk.  I think it would be much easier to go the other way...
One more little random story before I finish - on the way in on the plane flight from Frankfurt, we noticed a guy was being escorted by police everywhere he went.  He boarded the plane before everyone else and was immediately surrounded by armed guards on arrival in Minsk.  Our best guess was that he was being deported, although he must have been into some bad stuff to get deported back INTO Minsk.  I think it would be much easier to go the other way...

This is a figure in front of a themed restaurant (at least I think that's what it was) that we never ate at.  I really wanted to go there, but there's no way to make reservations without a native speaker's help, so I never got around to it...oh well.

I don't know what "Shato-Brian with Bernes sauce" tastes like, but it can't be that good!

This is a random picture, but this is the view from a high-rise building of the city of Minsk.