Lucie-isms and Life Update

life update as taken from a letter to our missionary written:   1/15/23
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Dear Elder G. (aka "Our Favorite Missionary in the World"),

First off, I'll start off with the barrage of questions.....
{boring, boring, boring}

Second off, I'm a little upset that you haven't called back your Portland weather yet!   Seriously, it's been raining/snowing every day for weeks and I am officially ready for Spring (only 2 months and 2 days according to Alexa).   😞  Next time someone here talks about a drought I'm going to loudly guffaw and say, "Drought.  Shprout.  Have you been outside lately, you little lout?"   I think it's going to go over very well and win me lots of friends.   

Speaking of friends, I Facebook stalked your companion and see that he's friends with my cousin's daughter.   Is he from Pleasant Grove?   Or does he know her from college?  And if you haven't answered me yet....how is everything going with your comp?

Speaking of comps, I am very happy to have a couple extra comps hanging out with us this week.  It's been so fun to have Cami and Lucie here.   Lucie has been a little on the grumpy side the last couple of days, but you will not be surprised to learn that she's still an adorable companion, even when she's grumpy.   This picture includes Jack K. (Katy's son, who is about 9 months old).

For your information, Lucie says exactly three words:
1. "Hi," which she uses with a wave whenever she sees someone/something with a face (including stuffed animals, dogs, snowmen ornaments, and people sitting behind us at church).  
2. "Doggy," which sounds like doodoo.   She is quite enamored with both Rocky and Denali and loves to softly pet them or beep their noses.  We are keeping her away from Kiwi, but she loves to wave at her from a distance (usually through the closed gate which we got for the top of the stairs).
3. "No," which she actually doesn't use super often, but also usually shakes her head to show that she means it. 

She also signs, "more," "water," "thank you," all done," "hot," and "milk."   In other words, she's quite good at communicating what she wants and quite good at wrapping the whole world around her fingers with her adorableness.😍  

She still isn't quite walking yet, though she can walk along furniture and crawl up the stairs now.  We've been working on teaching her to go DOWN the stairs safely and she's starting to get it! 

 Speaking of Lucie,  you've probably noticed that ALL the pictures for this week will include her!  😆

We took Lucie over to meet Denali's siblings today. 

There are 8 of them and she wasn't quite sure what she thought of them and their up-close-and-personal greetings.   

Sadly, most of the family was gone and we didn't get our dose of Natalie love while we were there. 

Puppy love was nice though...until one nibbled Lucie's ear.  

Here's hoping she sleeps well tonight, because the construction zone behind us seems to keep her up during the day.   Speaking of construction zones, the house behind us is going up warpspeed now that they've hired people to come work on it.  Every once in a while, we'll see the owner out there hobbling around (last week he was hobbling ON THE ROOF without a rope)😱, but we are glad there's action finally starting to happen there and have hopes that it will actually be completed before 2030 now. 

Alright, I guess I've sent you like 47 gigs of photos and told you all about Lucie.  What else is happening?  

Precious little.  

I'm still mostly staying home and trying to spend as much time as possible with Cam and the Goose (which is what Cami calls Lucie).  I've also finally found a way to share the Come Follow Me activity pages.   It's not very many people, but at least they won't be sitting there doing  nothing anymore.  

I hope the transition to Beaverton and your new comp is going well!  I can't wait to be able to talk to you later.   I LOVE YOU and am so proud of you!!!

Love,
Mom

PS  Here's a spiritual thought that came from Elder Christofferson's talk, "The Doctrine of Belonging."  "Thus, the doctrine of belonging comes down to this—each one of us can affirm: Jesus Christ died for me; He thought me worthy of His blood. He loves me and can make all the difference in my life. As I repent, His grace will transform me. I am one with Him in the gospel covenant; I belong in His Church and kingdom; and I belong in His cause to bring redemption to all of God’s children."

Sending Cami Off

I will try to keep this blog updated at least somewhat with Cami's mission experiences, however if you want the full story, you'll want to subscribe to her mission blog. 

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Cami's spent the last couple of weeks madly trying to finish up all of the preparations for her mission.   She's  been shopping, gathering items that she needs, visiting with friends, and making long late-night FaceTime calls to people, which is actually really only one special person that she's really going to miss.  

She also met with as many friends and relatives as possible to say her "see ya laters"!   

We ate up our Cami time as much as we could and planned and did little else (hence the lack of posting on this blog).

We did, however, throw in a family photo shoot...

as well as a trip to see Phantom of the Opera at the Kennedy Center.

Then on Sunday, July 31st, Cami was set apart as an official missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, after which the late phone calls stopped and we started calling her Sister Goold.

  It was an emotional day, but we could't be happier about the adventure she's embarking on for the next 18-months.

Then the next day on August 1st, Cami  and I hopped on a plane to Utah.  Glen and the kids said their goodbyes there at the curb...

and waved as Cami went off on her 18-month adventure!   

After we landed in Utah late on Monday night, it quickly became a whirlwind of activity getting ready to drop Sister Goold off at the Missionary Training Center on Wednesday afternoon.

We had some shopping to do, some things to gather, etc.    But for as much as she tried to stay focused on actually getting ready, really at this point, she just wanted to eat up her last few hours being a semi-normal 19-year-old.     We (and I do mean she AND I, since she was already a set apart missionary) went out to lunch and met a friend at the temple for a session.

Then we came back (later than we'd expected) to my parent's home to hang out with lots of relatives at the open house my mom and sisters planned.

Cami's friends stayed later at the open house than everyone else and she enjoyed one more night of being social.  

She practiced her missionary safe goodbyes, but ended up laughing more than anything else.  

Wednesday morning dawned too early and eventually it was time to get in the car and head to Provo.

Cami randomly ran into one of her favorite babysitting families in the parking lot at BYU.   The Welch's hold a special place in Cami's heart and I think she was as excited to see them as they were to see her.   

We spent the last hour before I dropped her off at the MTC, at the Wilkinson Center, so she could say her last goodbyes for the next 18-months.   Sister Welch (the mom of the kids above) even ran from the class she was teaching, so she could join in on the fun! 

There were no tears here, just some great friends (one of whom you've probably noticed has shown up in a lot of these pictures and may or may not have something to do with all the late-night FaceTime calls)  really happy to spend a few more minutes together.

Leaving time came all too soon though...

and Sister Goold and I reluctantly jumped in the car for the 2 minute drive to the Missionary Training Center.   She made a few phone calls (to Glen and her siblings) along the way...

and before I knew it I was leaving a piece of my heart behind there in the drop-off lane.  

Goodbyes are quick at the MTC, but that didn't stop the floodgates from opening.   I had to quickly pull over after leaving the MTC  and regain my composure before it was safe for me to drive again.  

I am thrilled beyond belief for Cami and know that great adventures lie ahead for her, but, man, we sure are going to miss her for the next year-and-a-half.  

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Fun facts: 

*August 3rd was a big day at the Provo MTC and 819 other missionaries also started their missions that day.  

*Cami's first companion, Sister Jones,  is the niece of a good friend of ours.  They were in the same ward at BYU and are also both in the nursing program. They had connected beforehand and Cami was very excited about having her as a companion. 

*Sister Goold's P-Day (short for preparation day) while she is in the MTC is on Fridays.  Basically that means, that's the only day she'll have access to email, so make sure you send your emails before then.   

UNDEFEATED!

January 30--Our ward (church congregation) has an awesome young women basketball team!  Some teams get intense and negative when they play, but I love that our YW are good sports that genuinely just enjoy playing the game.  They've been undefeated for the last couple of years and Saturday's game was no different.  Everyone, including the inexperienced players, got equal playing time and still they swept the scoreboard.  

Speaking of teams, here's another picture of the BYU women's lacrosse team, of which Cami is a proud member.  Because of a previous commitment, she will have to miss their first game, which is this weekend, but the next weekend she will be off to California for their first away games.   She is excited to be playing again and especially excited to be playing for BYU!

We weren't originally planning on taking any trips to Utah this spring, but now we really hope that one of us will be able to get to at least one of her games eventually. 

We will see! 

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Boring Old Update

WARNING:  If you are not a first degree relative, you will most likely fall asleep within seconds of reading this post.   If you choose to proceed anyway, you do so at your own risk and I will not be held culpable for any damage that may occur to body or electronic equipment when your face and/or drool hits your keyboard.  

Please initial here before proceeding________. 


10 Boring Things that I Don't Want to Forget

1. The other day Cami and I actually got into a tiff  about the word, "subterfuge".   I think I won.  She thinks she won.  I blame the whole thing 100% on her AP Lang class!

2.  My time without a kitchen is giving me the itch to get cooking again!

3.  Speaking of the kitchen, ours is finally starting the slow process of getting reassembled.  Some of the lights are in, the drywall is back on the wall, and the cabinets are supposed to be coming on Monday!

4.  Young Women is back in full swing after a little hiatus for the month of August and I am absolutely loving the time I get to spend with these awesome YW again.

5.  Ellie and Adam have unknowingly been doing a little planking on the trampoline lately.  They don't call it planking, but one will intentionally roll into the other one while they take turns falling over the other one then asking me to judge who fell the most realistically. One of them definitely has the better moves than the other, but I'm not saying who...

6.  I swatted at a wasp with my iPad this week.  Ellie was just sitting on the couch when the dang thing started stinging her and I grabbed the closest thing I could find, which happen to be my iPad.  Happily,  Ellie and the iPad are fine and the wasp is not.

7. My brain is completely swamped with appliance shopping, flooring options, and choosing contractors (roofers, electricians, and flooring people).  And I still have yet to choose the cupboard handles, lights, faucet, and table.  Oh yeah, and I'm trying to be a wife and a mom, homeschool the kids, keep up with my calling, and attempt to keep the house from falling apart.

8.  With all the extra time that  Adam and Ellie are spending together during homeschool, they are starting to learn more creative ways to resolve their differences.  Take their ongoing argument over whose turn it is to hold Rocky's leash....instead of trying to keep track of whose turn it is, why not just use two leashes instead?!

 9.  I nearly jumped a mile the other day when I was walking with the kids through the high school parking lot to pick up Cami from practice and suddenly we heard a loud boom and witnessed a car driving over a full can of paint.  It turned out to be quite amusing to see the designs it made on the pavement and we were pleasantly surprised that there didn't seem to be a drop of paint on the actual body of the car (only the tires).  The poor teen driver though, was so flustered and embarrassed that he gave the paint can owner $20 for the trouble.

10.  I grew up living hundreds of miles away from my nearest cousin, so I absolutely love seeing the strong friendship that my kids are forming with theirs.   I have three siblings, who have six kids between them that live in the area.

A couple of other random photos I don't want to lose: