The Little Birdie Returns

Now that we know we are not moving to Saint George, we have embarked on several projects that will make staying in this home better for our needs!    One of the big motivating factors was that we needed to get the office setup for Glen to start working from home.   We are still in the throes of most of it right now, but here's a glimpse of it as a work in progress.  

 On a completely different note, I didn't want to miss documenting that a couple weeks ago, Ellie hitched a ride with a roommate and came home for the weekend.   It was fun to have her around and it made me extra miss my days (28 years of it) of having kids at home with me.  

We did a little photo shoot while she here, so she could pick one for her mission papers.  

I had to laugh pretty hard when I found this random assortment of screenshots show up in our camera roll.  Apparently the girls were having a fun late-night facetime and took some goofy shots!  

On Saturday, we had the missionaries over for dinner.  I made them jalapeno chicken, Brazi bites, fruit salad, and PB bars for dessert.  It was great to have them here, but it made me miss Adam a little extra!   WE ARE DOWN TO DOUBLE DIGIT DAYS UNTIL HE COMES HOME NOW!!!!

Stay tuned for some house updates (and perhaps a little trip post) coming soon...

Adam in Oregon!

Adam has been on his mission about 18-months now, which, having only sent out his two sisters before him,  officially means we are entering into unknown territory as far as missionaries go. Two years is seeming like a really long time right about now and I'm eagerly looking forward to August!    It's been a while since I've done a recap on how he's doing (have I ever done one?!),  so here's a little glimpse at the last year-and-a-half of his life.   I'll do it in little sections to break it up: 

THE TEMPLE:  
He is able to attend the Portland Temple once or twice a transfer, which I love.  Cami didn't have a temple in her mission in France and Emma was a COVID missionary, so despite serving in Utah, she only went three times total during the entirety of her mission.  Even though it means that we don't get to communicate with him as much on the p-days he attends the temple, I am just happy he gets to go feel that peace and gain that strength on a regular basis.

THE WEATHER: 
He's serving in Portland and, as such, often has rather unpleasant weather to deal with.   As expected, it rains A LOT and we sent him with waterproof everything.  I'll be interested to hear how it all held up after two years of heavy use.   He doesn't complain about it, so I assume he's keeping pretty dry...most of the time at least!    

  It also gets quite cold sometimes and has random snow/ice storms in the winter, which Portland is not well equipped to navigate.  He and his fellow missionaries recently spent almost an entire week in their apartment due to a pretty severe ice storm, which turned the streets into ice skating rinks and knocked out power to their apartment for a couple days. 

HIS COMPANIONS:

 His current companion, Elder N,  is 6'10" tall...

  

So at a measly 6'2", Adam looks positively short when he's with his companion! 

I never can quite get a full feel for how he's getting along with his companions, but I can tell that he connects with and works better with some than others.  I'll be interested to get the full scoop when he's home and can talk freely about it.  It did seem like Elder S (in the snowy picture above) has been one of his favorites, but what can I tell?!  

ADAM-ISMS: 
Writing was his least favorite subject in school by a mile, and I'll be totally honest, that I've been quite surprised that he is a faithful weekly letter writer.   His letters are informative and bring the spirit into our days!   I also loves that he sends sky, scenery, and animal pictures on a regular basis.  He's definitely a picture taker after his mother's heart!  

 

 

PHONE CALLS: 
I know I've mentioned it before, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE that we live in a day and a time when we can talk to our missionary on a weekly basis!   Cami served her mission entirely before the communication changes were made and it makes such a HUGE difference being able to hear his voice and see his face every week!     We usually manage to get most of the family on at one time for his p-day calls, but usually someone or the other (often Emma, Cami, Glen, or Garrett) are at work and unable to join.    These calls are such a happy part of my week! 

 

QUOTE FROM HIS LAST LETTER:

"This is the Lord's work. This is Jesus Christ's church. If it wasn't, it simply just wouldn't happen. No humans could ever organize this and see as many miracles as there are EVERY DAY!!


One last little spiritual thought this week is going to be the words of the prophet Jacob. He taught:

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of you in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you. And while his arm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of the day, harden not your hearts." (Jacob, 6:5)

Turn to God! His arm of mercy is extended towards you! He is quite literally trying to reach you, love you, comfort you, and lift you up!

If you find a way to focus on God a little more this week you will feel that love!

I love you all! I hope you have a great week! Let me know if I can do anything for you all!"

 

OTHER RANDOM STUFF:  
I'll finish up this post with a few random pictures and thoughts.   He got a new mission president (from Ghana) this past summer and I think it's been a great change for Adam.  You can see his mission president and mission mom in this picture. 

Not that there was anything wrong with the former mission president, but I get the impression that the new one has been a blessing for Adam.    He's been a Zone Leader for the last several months, and I think that opportunity for growth and stretching that that calling has given him, has been good. 

He's been in the same area for the last few transfers (longer than any other place on his mission) and it seems that he's really enjoyed being able to get to know the ward and the area better. 

We love this kid and are proud of the sacrifices he's made to serve a mission. 

We've recently got his living situation all figured out for fall semester at BYU, so, despite it seeming like it's still a long ways off,  it's really happening!

  Here's hoping the next six months will fly! 

Being Real

 I had grand expectations of coming home from our trip in November and getting right back "into the swing of things" with life.   I'd quickly reestablish my exercise and scripture study routine.  I'd get the house all decked out for Christmas.  I'd jump right on Christmas shopping and getting our cards designed and out the door. I'd leave my vacation eating habits in the dust and happily start cooking well-rounded meals again.  Heck, I'd probably even get a few books read, some neighbor gifts made, and some blogging done too.  😂

Lucie reacts to my grand dreams of productivity...

  I'm not quite sure why I thought that coming straight off a trip and directly into the holidays would be conducive to getting back to it,  but fast forward a month and I'm here to say that I am nowhere near the swing of things.  In fact, I am pretty sure my brain might still be in the middle of the Sahara desert somewhere.  Probably being chewed on by a camel, based on how I'm functioning currently.  

Not only do I keep catching random bugs (3 in 6 weeks, 2 of them directly from Lucie) keeping me on the tired and rundown side,

but our dishwasher is broken (dishes by hand are not my favorite chore), our car is unreliable (see this post for the story), my phone had to be repaired, I missed my flight home from Alabama (thanks to super long security lines), my house still hasn't recovered from  our weeks away, the Christmas decorations look like I had 4 people randomly throw them up onto the shelves (probably because that's exactly what I did),   I am stress eating like I haven't done in years, I'm still not exercising regularly, and I've barely even made a dent on Christmas shopping.   

On the bright side, though, I did finally start getting our Christmas cards out the door today.  #priorities

Oh, and we  hosted the missionaries (who still wanted to come despite Glen and I both being sick),

rented a car and picked up Ellie from Rexburg who is off-track for winter semester...

and sent off Adam's Christmas package (it was due on the 15th, so this was verrrrrrrry last minute)... 

-- all that within 24 hours of me returning home from Alabama a day later than expected and still being sick.  So, yay me. 

I think I've gotten to the point now that  I just have to accept that this will be a Christmas where I just need to prioritize sleep ( so I can stop getting sick) and taking care my mental health (which always suffers during the wintertime).  The state of the house will be what it will be and everyone will have Christmas presents of some sort or another.   It will be far from perfect, but we will have 3 of our 5 kids here,  and it will  all be good!  

Speaking of mental health, every time I start to get a little discouraged about yet another load of dishes to do by hand or by the number of things on my to-do list, I look back at these photos from my week plus an extra day in Alabama (December 2-10) and it's hard not to smile.    Lucie may have given me her cold, but it was worth it for the snuggles, storytimes, giggles, and time with her Mommy and Daddy too. 

 

I LOVE being a Gigi!

Next time I see them, they'll have a new little one to snuggle too.   I can't wait. 

Merry Christmas! 
**************************

Thank Goodness for Old Friends!

So a few weeks ago, I sent out  "We Moved" cards to everyone on our Christmas list.  The underlying purpose was to beat the rush and hope that none of our Christmas cards would get lost in the mail, but it also served the unexpected purpose of notifying old friends how to get a hold of us.  After sending them out, I had several old friends reach out to us.  Here is a recap of some of the connections we've made in the last few weeks.  💗 

A couple weeks ago, we went to dinner with the Lowes and the Bowens {old friends of ours from Virginia} and had a delightful evening catching up with some of the most wonderful people God ever put on the earth.  Seriously!  Take out those two middle people and you're looking at the best of the best! 

The next day, we attended the baptism of Eli Richards...our down the street neighbor in PA and one of the bright spots from our time in Pennsylvania. The Richards are the sweetest family and we felt so blessed to have been able to have been their neighbors for that year!

And then later that week, we had Riley and Olivia {and their families} over.  Riley and Olivia were sister missionaries serving in our ward when Cami left on her mission and they were my sanity during that time!    I missed Cami desperately {this was in the days before weekly phone calls} and they were missing their homes and families too.   So we formed a strong bond, like I never had with any other missionary before.   We received their packages from home, so they wouldn't have to wait for them to be delivered from the mission home. I sent messages/updates to their moms when something needed to be communicated on a non-P-day.  They'd stop in front of our house to "borrow" our internet {back when missionaries didn't have cell service}.   They were my surrogate daughters while Cami was gone and I liked to think I was a bit like a surrogate mom to them while they were far from their homes.

We ate dinner and played games, and just enjoyed being together again! 

 These were relationships that meant the world to me and seeing them again was just what I needed!   

Riley and her husband, Mitch, have a sweet baby girl named, Blake, that I very much enjoyed snuggling through the evening!  Doesn't a baby girl look natural in my arms?   {ONLY ONE MORE WEEK UNTIL I HAVE MY OWN GRANDBABY TO HOLD!!!}  😁

A few days later, I went to a wedding and got to see another bright light from Pennsylvania!   Amanda is a dear friend and helped me to feel loved and valued, especially after feeling so hurt in the other ward.   I will forever be grateful that Heavenly Father brought us to this other ward, and did not allow our time in PA to end on a negative note.  

Last but not least, the Palmers came to town!  Amy and I embarked into homeschooling at the same time and she was my sanity and savior many times over in that journey!   Our youngest three kids lined up in age and they are all as dear friends with each other as I am with Amy.   It was good for my heart and soul to sit down and have a chat with her again.   

In the end, I decided that I can be patient with Utah.   

I've got my book group all scheduled out for the new year and we start our new ward on Sunday.   Maybe we'll make some new good friends along the way...maybe we won't.   In the meantime, I'm going to embrace the old friends that always  seem to find their way to Utah.   

💓💓💓    

Reunited!

Temples for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints closed very early in the COVID pandemic. We very much missed being able to serve there ourselves, but were most sad that Emma's appointment to be endowed before her mission (scheduled for the end of the March) had to be postponed indefinitely.  We heard of temples starting to reopen around the time Emma started the MTC, so we held out hope that perhaps some temple within 3-4 hours of us might reopen before she finished her training.  Unfortunately that didn't happen and it wasn't until the day we dropped Emma off at the airport to take off for her mission, that the Philadelphia Temple announced that they were reopening soon for individuals to receive their own endowments.   We  were disappointed that the timing ended up so close for her, but sent her on her way knowing that she would likely go through the temple on her mission without us.   

She'd only been in the field for a week or two, when she announced to us that her mission was scheduling endowment dates for all of the missionaries who were unendowed and that we were invited!   Never mind that we live on the other side of the country and travelling isn't really encouraged right now....we didn't hesitate for a second and bought our tickets to Utah ASAP!   

Over the next couple of weeks, we realized that Spence's summer job was ending the week before we arrived, so he was going to be back in Utah too.    Then, by a stroke of luck, Cami and Garrett serendipitously bought tickets to Utah the same weekend for a completely different reason, not even realizing that that was when Emma's temple appointment was then.  

Some may call that luck....I call it a tender mercy!  It is a rare occasion these days when we can be all together!    And thus the impromptu reunion of 2020 was born.   Here are some highlights: 

One of the first things Glen did after the dates of our trip were finalized, was plan a fishing trip with his brother, Alex.   It's become somewhat of a tradition for them now.  Glen rents a boat and the Goold boys all go on a fishing adventure together on the Strawberry Reservoir.   The weather was beautiful and many fish were caught....so it was definitely a success!  

Meanwhile, Ellie and I got together with the Goold girls and went to a cute fall craft boutique together.   It was great to see them and fun to pick out some unique fall decorations for our home.   

Later on that day, Heather took us to the orchard right around the corner from our parents' house and introduced to their fresh peach ice cream.   Yum!  

The next day we realized that we were all wearing ripped jeans and had to pose for a picture...

This was also the day that we got to see Cami and Garrett!   We actually met them at the Bourne cabin and got to spend time with Garrett's family too.   It was great to see them again and I love that our families are connected by marriage now, so we get a good excuse to keep their friendship closer, though we live far away now.   Here's the group shot with Amy in it....

And the one with me in it...

Here's a glimpse of the drive up to the Bourne cabin...  😍

Ellie  loved having a sister around again and wouldn't leave Cami's side!  

The next day we got up bright and early and headed to the temple to meet Emma!  Unfortunately there was a gap in communication somewhere along the way from the temple, to the mission, to Emma, to us, because on our 20 minute drive there we got a desperate phone call from the temple wondering where we were.  All we had known was the time of the session and had NO idea we were supposed to be there an hour early.   😕

So we missed the initiatory and other early stuff, but we made it in plenty of time for the session!   Sadly, because of COVID, they wouldn't let Cami and Garrett join us, but Glen and I were certainly thrilled to be there.  We had my sister, Heather, meet us there afterward to take pictures for us.   Gotta take advantage of the whole family being all together!   

AS you can see (and probably expected), we took a gazillion pictures...

And then afterward, we got to take Emma and her companions out for brunch....

 Sisters McKinlay and Skinner were delightful to meet and we felt privileged to be able to get to spend some time with them all.    It was also fun to take them out for their weekly shopping and let them get a few fun splurges.  

After that, we headed back to my parents' house and spent some time with Nana....

and Heather....

We also got to spend some time with Alex's family.  It was fun to get these cute girl cousins together.  

Then Cami and Garrett took off back to Austin....

Stay tuned for a recap on the rest of our trip coming soon.....