The Most Boring Letter in the Universe {Written to our Missionary}

9/26/21

Hola Girlie Girl {aka my favorite missionary in the universe}!

How's life? Guess what?! I'm actually starting this email before 9pm, which means that you can be prepared for the most amazing, profound, awesomely awesome email ever. Or perhaps just the normal random boringness.

😀😁😂😃😄😌😒😑😐😏😛😝😞😠😘

Keep reading and I guess you'll find out which one wins.

So, I taught the RS lesson today. It was fine. It wasn't the most amazing lesson I've ever taught and it wasn't the worst. We were discussing Elder Christofferson's, "Why the Covenant Path," and I was pleased that we did get a good discussion going. I appreciate lessons with good discussions, so that was a positive. Also, no one threw tomatoes at me, so that was also a plus.

The two main concepts I wanted to emphasize in my lesson were:
1. Following the covenant path is a personal journey that has to do with our relationship with Christ. We can't force others to follow or accompany us on the covenant path
2. Perfection is not only not necessary, but can be a hindrance to our following the covenant path. Remember ME + CHRIST = MORE (not ME + MORE = ANYTHING). We can never be enough MORE, without Christ.

“Brothers and sisters, every one of us aspires to a more Christlike life than we often succeed in living. If we admit that honestly and are trying to improve, we are not hypocrites; we are human. May we refuse to let our own mortal follies, and the inevitable shortcomings of even the best men and women around us, make us cynical about the truths of the gospel, the truthfulness of the Church, our hope for our future, or the possibility of godliness. If we persevere, then somewhere in eternity our refinement will be finished and complete—which is the New Testament meaning of perfection.” Jeffrey R. Holland

Ellie also taught today. She taught her YW class about the keys of the priesthood. There was a big miscommunication about who was supposed to teach, so one leader {who was out of town} asked Ellie to teach and another leader, unbeknownst to the first leader, asked another girl to teach. Thankfully "other" girl flaked out and the "other" leader {who was in town} was pleasantly surprised that Ellie had a lesson prepared. I hear it was the most amazing lesson ever taught.

So, are you feeling ready for General Conference this week? Adam is having a bunch of friends over to watch in our theater room. Apparently good food is expected too. Next conference, you can invite a bunch of friends over too. Don't worry though, we'll only let dad run the skunk machine and tell embarrassing dad jokes between sessions. 😆

WOOHOO!!!! We are getting super excited that it's not seeming all that far away that you'll be here for us to hug and kiss and embarrass you every chance we can get. I am planning on wearing a sequined dinosaur ballet outfit when we pick you up from your mission. Probably right from the mission home, right? I'll be brushing up on my opera singing too.

What else is going on here in Alpine? My dad's surgery on his bladder has been canceled due to COVID--not that any of us have COVID, but that the hospital is canceling all non-urgent surgeries because there are too many COVID cases. Apparently my Dad's bladder issues are considered unimportant {although my mom would beg to differ} and he gets to suffer with bladder drama for an additional couple months...at least. Also, I forgot if I mentioned it, but his lymphoma diagnosis was as good as it could be, in that it's considered slow-moving and not aggressive. So basically, if you're going to get lymphoma, it's the type to get.

Your dad is having his colonoscopy on Wednesday. He's about as excited about his as I was about mine. yay

Okay, okay. Are you sleeping yet? I guess I need to step up my game here in the pre-9:00 email department (despite the fact that it's now 10:00pm exactly) and get some amazing profundity spewing out of the internet your way.

Raspberries grow in our backyard. They're freaking amazing and I love them almost as much as being done with colonoscopies for the next 10 years.



Here is a random picture of your brother, sister, and dog-sister. They miss you.




Your Uncle Nate came to visit for 2 weeks and I was shocked to discover that he's still taller than me. He's also still 13 months younger than me. What's he up to these days? He's living in an income tax free state (Tennessee) and is eagerly planning a trip to country #76. $100 billion if you can guess where he wants to go next? {Hint: He doesn't like when siblings beat him to countries}



It's your sister and her hubby bubby. They're cute and I can't wait to meet their cute baby. You're cute too and will have cute babies, but I can wait to meet them until you're home from your mission and married.




I broke a blood vessel in my eye (how? I have no earthly idea) and I look like a freakazoid. It looks bad but apparently it's no big deal at all {according to Doctor Google and Doctor Cami}. Thankfully it doesn't hurt a bit, though I do make small children and sensitive adults cry.


I decorated for Halloween and I think it looks amazing.



 There used to be another pine cone here, but Kiwi ate it. Literally.



This meme made me giggle. hard. And I don't even like cats.



Hmmmm...here's a random picture from the photo roll. Don't know her name or anything about her (so she could be a nun from Nebraska for all I know)....but she's cute and chilling with Adam long enough to take a picture with him, so here you go....


We went on an awesome hike on Saturday. It was in Kaysville/Layton and it was absolutely lovely. The leaves were just starting to turn and it was just the kind of challenge level I like--hard, but not knock-your-socks-off-hard. It was called Adam's Falls and we didn't see Adam the entire time, nor did we hear of any random falls he had, so that was kind of a bust.





We sang, "There is Sunshine in My Soul," today in sacrament meeting and we all sang it at the top of our lungs...opera style. It was amazing. And AnnaLisa heard us from my parents' house and started crying. She threatened to disown us and to spike all our cookies with gluten forevermore, but we set her up on a date with David Archuleta and all is forgiven.



I am 1000% enraptured by the view coming down from our Horsetail Falls hike. We hike up to the trailhead from our house (exactly 2 miles). It's all uphill on the way there and all downhill on the way home. In a few months, you can join us for it, though the wildflowers will likely be covered with 12 feet of snow by then!

Alright....I guess this email wasn't that great.



Sorry for being super boring again. Maybe next time I'll try and throw in a few more interesting tidbits.

In the meantime,

WE FREAKING LOVE YOUR GUTS!!!!!!


Have an awesome week!
Love,
Your very boring mother

The Story of the Kristina Statue

THIS POST WAS MOSTLY WRITTEN IN FALL 2019.

One day, while visiting my parents' house this past summer, they had a visitor drop by to wish my Nana a happy 90th birthday.   His name is Dennis Smith and somehow the conversation turned to the fact that he was an artist.  He was fascinating to talk to and drew my daughter, Ellie, right into the story of how he became an artist.   Though they are many decades apart in age, I felt like he and Ellie spoke the same language of creativity and expression.  

He told us how he loved to use his art to capture moments in time--especially those of families and children.   He is the artist that created this iconic statue called "In the Family Circle" that can be found at several LDS temples around the world.  We took this picture at the temple in Madrid, Spain.  

During the course of our conversation, it came up that we would be traveling to Copenhagen, Denmark soon (Fall 2019).   He excitedly told us that he'd served his mission in Denmark and that one of his sculptures could be found there.   

When we got there, we tracked down the location (right on the harbor) and were thrilled to be able to see it in person.  

It was fascinating to read the story and to see the incredible detail of his work up close.  

It was a wonderful experience and we loved being able to meet the artist in person and then see his works in real life.

A Glimpse at May 2021

I pretty much know that I'm blogging into thin air these days {feel free to send me a note if any of you blog readers is still around}, but it's been fun trying to get caught back up to speed for our family records.    May was a very full month of getting ready for our move across the country and some other big and small things.   Here are a few of the highlights...

--In the course of going through things and packing up our belongings, I came across some awesome old pictures.  Here are a couple of my favorites....

Me in college with my Larsen cousins (the ones that named their rat after me)

Look how cute and  little my kiddos were!   This must have been winter 2000/2001.  

--When we came to Utah to hunt for the perfect house for us, we ended up taking a hike up to Horsetail Falls.   The trailhead for it is about 2 miles away from our new house and we'd never hiked it before, so we were excited to explore our future stomping grounds!  There was still snow on the ground and though we were very much still flatlanders and the elevation change (about 1600 feet) knocked our socks off, we enjoyed the hike and the scenery.    (MAY 1st)

--When we got back to Pennsylvania, we made sure to hike our favorite trails as often as we could, because we knew we'd miss them once we were gone.  The Schuylkill Canal Towpath was within a 5 minute drive from our home and it was one of our very favorites.  Lined with trees and  sandwiched between the Schuylkill Canal and the Schuylkill River,  there were always ducks and other wildlife along the trail.   Plus the scenery was peaceful and idyllic!  

Though the trail starts right in the middle of Phoenixville, the path was generally quiet and little traveled.  It  was often my first choice when we were deciding where to hike and I definitely miss it now that we're gone!   

--You can read all about it here, but we drove down to Tennessee for the LDSHE East Homeschool Conference and for a graduation ceremony for Adam.  

--Since AnnaLisa knew our time on the East Coast was short, she came up for another visit...something we've missed since moving away from Virginia!  It was great to spend time with her again!

--What can I say?   I mentioned previously that Pennsylvania was a hard place for us to live.  Not only was our church community spread out significantly more than our church community in Virginia, but most of our time was spent during COVID, which pretty much sucked.   Everything shut down instantly in PA.  There was no church, the kids' classes and activities all got canceled, and being the new people meant we didn't have our tribe yet.   We were very lonely.   After a year there we found ourselves needing to move houses again....smack in the middle of COVID.    At that point we knew we likely weren't going to be in PA long-term, so we tried hard to stay in the same ward.   Fortunately for us, that plan didn't work.   While we never did find our tribe in the first ward we were in (which was technically the 2nd Ward), we found instant connections in the second ward, which were exactly what we needed for our lonely hearts.  We unknowingly rented a house down the street from the Richards' family.  We didn't know them before we moved in, but their sweet family brought us so much joy during our year in Phoenixville!  

Weirdly enough, they were moving to Utah too...only a few weeks before us, so we spent as much time as we could with them before they moved!  

Little Emmaline won all of her hearts and I miss her cute smiles and happy conversations. 

--PACKING! This was our main occupation for the month of May!  Glen was working remotely and the rest of us packed, packed, and packed some more...and I resorted to caffeine and silliness more than once!     

--Our ward in Virginia had some great traditions for graduating seniors. As the end of the school year approached I asked our ward in Pennsylvania what they did and when they said, "nothing," I decided that we would just drive Adam to Virginia to participate with the Vienna Ward.   At this point, we knew we were moving and I had no desire to rock any boats, so I was happy with this plan.   Too bad me asking planted a seed and they wanted to hear all about it.  Next thing I knew, I was in charge of planning the first ever Senior Roast for the VF1st Ward!  

It was a lot of work in the middle of moving, but it was a smashing success!  Of the seven graduating seniors, I had only met three of them (including Adam) and all of them came except one! 

It was a fun way to honor the seniors and I heard nothing but great reports from the seniors and their parents.  A lot of them hadn't set foot at a church activity in a couple years and I loved meeting them for the first time. The best part was that the reports were so good that I think it may be a new tradition there.  The Bishop and youth leaders all said that they hoped to do in future years now.  

The snuggies were a gift for each of the seniors to remind them of the warmth of God's love for each of them and that they had a ward family cheering them on. 

 Here are Adam and Ellie with their good friend, Kennedy. 

--Ellie got her COVID vaccine!    She's under 18, so she had to get a different version than the rest of us, but she's good to go on her overseas trip this summer now!   In case you're wondering, yes, she's totally  magnetic now. 😆

--Here is Glen's ministering buddy, Don.   They spent a lot of time together in the couple months before we moved.  

--So we didn't need to go to Virginia for the Senior Roast, but Mormon Prom was another story.  They weren't doing ANYTHING of the sort in Pennsylvania and I was so sad to think that Adam would graduate from high school without ever having the experience of a formal dance or prom.  We happily drove down for the occasion and lent all the help we could in the short time we were there for!   

It was an absolutely lovely event and I was so happy that Adam was able to be a part of it! 

And Ellie too for that matter.  She wasn't old enough to officially attend, but she was thrilled to hang out with her friends and help serve food!

It was a great night for the teens...

and we hung out with the Palmers.  

All in all, it was a welcome reprieve from all the packing to spend time with old friends and to let Adam have a quintessential experience of high school.  

--At the end of the month we headed back to Utah to officially buy our house.  The day we got there we ended up rushing my dad to the hospital with sepsis.  He and my mom had just returned home from their mission and he was quite ill with an infection that settled into his bloodstream.   Thankfully he got to the hospital quickly, because it was a serious infection that took several days of hospitalization to recover from.  

Here he is after coming home...

In the meantime (between driving my mom to and from the hospital and visiting dad when we could), we tried to squeeze in some time at the LDSHE West Homeschool Conference as well.  It was our first time attending the West version and though it wasn't the same experience as being amongst "our people" in the East, it was still great to meet people and be inspired.  The kids had a great time making new friends and spending time with some East Coast friends that had come as well.  

We also enjoyed hanging out with Spence and his new pup, Kiwi. 

It was a full month that started in Utah, then brought us back to Pennsylvania, down to Tennessee for LDSHE and Adam's graduation, back to PA for packing and  life stuff, down to Virginia for prom, back to Pennsylvania  for more packing, then back to Utah with a hospital stay.    I'd like to say that next month calms down a bit, but it was just as crazy...