Life Update via Missionary Letter

It's the season for double duty blogging, where I post life updates as taken from letters to our missionary! I've done that with both of our previous missionaries and here we are again.  It's a great way to minimize effort and instill a bit of silliness here on the blog, since I'm rarely not at least a little silly with my kids.   😄

Letter written on 9/19/22

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Hey there Elder G!

How's life in the (503)? How's the weather?  Do you have everything you need?  Have you figured out the food sit-choo any better this week? I'm hoping that my recipes will inspire everyone in your apartment to throw away the hot dogs and eat only delicious nutritionally dense foods from now on! haha...a mom can dream, right?! PLEASE let me know if there are any specific recipes you want.

Okay, enough with the boring questions, here's the super exciting life update you've been waiting for all week

Dad: has been super stressed at work lately. He's been working long hours and comes home in a stressed state of mind. On the bright side, he got to go fishing with Grandpa Dave on Saturday. He said it was one of the best days of fishing he's had in many years, so I guess you could say it was a success.




Me: I am a nerd x1000 and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Not only did I volunteer to make yet another funeral program this past week (my third in the last 1-1/2 months), but I also made Kristina's paper program for her primary program. PLUS I reached out and volunteered to make our primary programs as well, despite the fact that I won't even be around for it. And to be totally honest, I've thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. My program (including a missionary page) is pretty epic (if I do say so myself), so maybe I can convince the Bishop that he wants a program all the time. <sigh> Probably not. 😂

{PS I received zero comments on how amazingly epic my programs were (yes, I know I'm being flowing with superlatives today), so I guess we won't be going back to paper programs anytime soon. Oh well, I enjoyed creating it very much, so c'est la vie. I continue forward with the most useless interest / skillset ever. I've determined that that's one of my gifts--skills that no one needs/wants. haha}





Spence: He's had some good days at work (lots of sales), but he's still thinking he'd like a new job. I have no idea how far along in that process he is. We like having him at home for now, though I imagine he'll get bored of our very sedate/ boring lives before too long.😆

Cami, Garrett, Lucie: Garrett flew to Austin for the weekend and they got to enjoy the weekend all together. I think Cami and Lucie thoroughly enjoyed their Garrett time. Sadly, now it'll be a while before they see each other again.




Emma: is jumping in head first down at BYU and is staying busy, busy, busy. She just visited a family from her mission last week (perks of serving a mission in Utah),


started working at Subway, went on a cool hike,

and got a busy new calling.

Ellie: is lamenting the AP Gov class she signed up for this year, though she is plugging away at it and working hard. She has recently decided that she's going to read a bunch of books by Christmas and wants to start biking, in addition to continuing working on her fudge business.

Kiwi: is still in heat and is wearing granny panties or ruffled skirts around to protect our floors and furniture.



Denali: is still an attention seeking diva, who loves to be in the middle of everything!

Rocky: is as obsessed with food as ever. And sleep. He does love his sleep.

BYU sports: As I'm sure you've heard, BYU got kicked by Oregon. Sadly, Oregon fans were pretty terrible (yelling F-bombs and religious insults), but weirdly no one is canceling their games against them (despite ample evidence that they have a whole bunch of religious bigots who attend their games). Never mind that there's not one shred of evidence that anything ever happened at the BYU game, South Carolina still refuses to play them. What a stupid double standard! It's okay to insult religions loudly and openly and nothing happens. But someone makes up a lie about one single person being racist and the whole world freaks out. Whatever. Can you tell I'm annoyed?

Fall time: The weather is starting to cool down just a touch and the leaves are just starting to turn, and I love it all! I've decided to make something pumpkiny at least once a week to celebrate. So far we've made pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin cookies.

Excitement this week: NYC--here we come!!!! I feel woefully unprepared about leaving in 2 days and am sad about missing the primary program, but I am quite excited to have a weekend away and see some shows.

The garden: has been producing like crazy and we are very much enjoying the fruits (and the veggies) of our labors!


And here are a few more random pictures, just because....

Grandma and Nana having a sweet moment on the way into a senior luncheon.




One of the drawings I got for the cover of the program. It made me smile. :)



Grandma took off for the week to head to California.

Spiritual thought: I came across my favorite scripture in my Book of Mormon reading this week:

And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

This scripture gives me so much comfort because it reminds me that my best chance for happiness in this life and the life to come is through Christ. When we build our lives on Christ, He helps us to be our best selves. Not that we won't struggle (because we know well that that's not true), but that we'll be blessed with an extra measure of strength to overcome the struggles and get back to that "blessed and happy state".

I love you like crazy and hope you're having an amazing week!
Love,
Mom