I love to see the temple

There are two universal truths that come into play in this story.

1. Our family goes to the temple once a month. We've been doing this since 2003, when we moved to Indiana. It didn't change when we moved to Maryland, and it's still the same even though we're back to long distances (relatively) travelling to the Philadelphia temple. 
2. Marriner is always working on waking up earlier and getting to work faster in the morning. It's been like that since before 2003.

Although Marriner and I both go to the Philadelphia temple once a month, just like we did the Washington DC temple, Marriner has felt a little loss. He used to be a temple worker twice a month, which gave him some extra time in the temple. And now that he's the branch president, he feels even more than usual the need for that closeness to God that comes in the temple.

A few weeks ago, Marriner's wake up alarm changed from whatever pleasant-but-firm tone was the default on his tablet to "I Love to See the Temple." I have to say, it is wonderful to wake up to. Or, not wake up to, in my case, because I usually roll over and go back to sleep. Did you ever see the study showing that women need more sleep than men? I took it to heart :)

Well, last night it came out why he'd switched. (Note: it's not like he was hiding it from me. We just don't get a lot of time for small talk right now.) He set a goal to build up 8 hours of "comp time" at work - that means, if you work more than your 40 hours a week, you can apply the excess time on another day. It's not vacation time, it's just flexible work time. (This is one of the great things about getting a PhD - you're more likely to get a flexible schedule! Woohoo!) Once he had  hours of comp time, he could take a day off and go to the temple an extra time.

I think it's really awesome that Marriner is really succeeding right now at his "early to rise" goals. And I think it's really, really awesome that the temple is what's motivating him to do it. I just hope when he meets his goal, he invites me and the kids to come with him, even though I'm totally not Mrs. Early To Rise right now! :)