Knutson Korner

Friday, April 23, 2010

Country Roads, Take Me Home...

Posted by Jordan

Few people have heard the un-released original recording of John Denver's 1971 hit, "Country Roads." You may not believe this, but it was actually written about Cache Valley Utah! But for "greater commercial appeal," the subject of the song was later changed to the more sentimental and nostalgic West Virginia.

Okay, so that may be partially to entirely fabricated, but here are the original lyrics (at least as I envision them):

Almost heaven, Logan Utah
Wellsville Mountains, Little Bear River
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, growing like a breeze

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
Northern Utah, mountain mamma
Take me home, country roads

All my memories, they gather 'round her
Farmer's lady, stranger to big cities
Cold in winter, haze inverted sky
Taste of Aggie Ice Cream, and cow poop in my eyes

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
Northern Utah, mountain mamma
Take me home country roads

The last verse--unchanged from my "original version"--is the one I've had playing in my head every day for the last year in Denver:

I hear her voice, in the morning hour she calls me
The radio reminds me of my home far away
And drivin' down the road, I get a feelin'
That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday...

Yes, we know we haven't been gone for long. But those who knew why we left Logan in the first place are not surprised: After one year living in the Denver metro, we have packed up our apartment and moved back home to Northern Utah.

It was necessary for us to leave for many reasons, some of which we did not find out until we got there. We gained experiences over the last year that we couldn't have had any other way, and made friends that otherwise we might never have known existed. I'm grateful for these things, which we will take with us...

But there's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's no place like home.

It's so good to be home.

Monday, April 12, 2010

And the winner IS...

Posted by Jordan

Some of you may remember that last December we decided to run a little contest on our blog to NAME OUR BABY.

We had a lot of great entries, and this was, perhaps, the most productive thing we could have done to stimulate thought and explore more name possibilities. In fact, we actually chose DAPHNE CLAIRE, both first and middle, from suggestions on our blog which we had not previously considered, but that we immediately fell in love with!

Thanks, everybody, who participated, except for my brother McLain, who should never be allowed to name a human being. Sheri, bless you for choosing normal names for your children.

THE WINNERS:

The name Claire was submitted by Kristen Weller and Sarah Cantrell, with variations Clair by Emily Berkley and, to a lesser extent, Clarah, by Mindy Percival. With this many winners, you're all going to have to split the prize, which will be 1/4 of a gift certificate arriving by mail soon. (Just kidding.) We'll figure something out here soon.

For a long time we were going to use Claire for the first name, but then we read Daphne, and it became a big back-and-forth dilemma. We liked both names almost equally, but after trying to come up with blasted MIDDLE NAMES (the hardest part, really) to go with each, we decided that the best combination would be to sacrifice Claire as a first name and make it the world's cutest middle name.

Now, the winning submission for the first name Daphne came from Jaicee's little sister Naomie! Congrats, Naomie! You win the prize! Soon a van with a TV crew will pull up to your front door and present you with a giant check for ONE MILLION DOLLARS!!

Just kidding, of course. What you actually win is babysitting privileges for life!! Hoorah!!

Just kidding again. We'll take you out for a night on the town when we get up there. Thanks for the suggestion! We love you kiddo!

A little about the name Daphne:

Not only was this the name of the hottest character from Scooby Doo...

...(what a namesake, eh?), Daphne is from ancient Greek mythology.

Daphne means "Laurel Tree." Daphne was a nymph who was so extremely beautiful that she was lusted after by both men and gods. When Apollo, the sun god, tried to pursue her with intent to force himself upon her, she prayed to be turned into a laurel tree rather than to have her virtue and chastity taken from her.

And so it was, she was transformed into a tree, which kept her forever virtuous. The tree became sacred to Apollo and its leaves were used to crown the victors of the ancient Olympic Games.

Now THAT is a namesake: beauty and chastity. A rare combination! We will remind her of this when she becomes a Laurel in Young Women. (Does anyone know if there is a link between the ancient myth and why the Church chose this name for its sixteen-year-old Young Women???)

So there you have it! Daphne Claire Knutson. We know some of you are not a fan of the name, but hey, we pretend to like YOUR kids' weird names... ;P