Fotografia

Canadian Thanksgiving was Monday, October 6.  So it was our second annual celebration!  Baboo planned the menu and made almost all the food.  I made the mashed potatoes and the rolls.  The carrots were cooked in maple syrup like the Canadians do.  For reals.  Also, the pierogies are not pictures because they were still in the oven.  Oh yes, and we had two pies-pumpkin and chocolate cream.

She invited the Boss over (obviously) and two of her best friends, Matt and Quinn.  My favorite part of the whole evening was towards the end of the meal when the Hubba had us go around the table and share one thing we were grateful for about Canada.

This was the view into JJ’s Christmas box before I sealed it up!  I sent it off on October 26.  It takes 40-60 days to arrive in Tahiti.  I hope it gets there in time!  This will be the first package he receives from us in Tahiti.  It’s nothing fancy.  But ever since he arrived, he’s been asking us to send a few things.  So I finally got it all together.  Some flip flops.  Some music.  Some ties.  I also added some candy and some Christmas cards.  It’s simple.  But I hope he’s desperate enough to love it.

 

This is a little “clay pot” that Wink made after watching several videos by Primitive Technology on youtube.  She walked down to the open field near our house, gathered up some dirt, came home and mixed it up with water.

I had previously assured her that all she’d be able to do was make mud.  That we didn’t have clay-y soil.  But thankfully she didn’t listen to me.

I meant to take a photo on the day she made it.  But it’s probably been about three weeks now and it’s still standing, even after I made her store it outside.  And even after it’s been rained on.  Pretty impressive.

 

 

 

The Saddest Goodbyes are the ones You Miss

I am decluttering my house.  X had two huge dressers in his bedroom.  I told him to pick one of them and then we would get rid of the other.  He didn’t understand.  The other dresser belonged to JJ.  We couldn’t get rid of JJ’s dresser.  Then he wouldn’t have a dresser.  So then I said, “You and JJ are never going to be living in this house together at the same time again.  We only need one.”

I made X super sad as he realized that he would be leaving on a mission before JJ got back from Tahiti.  Then when JJ got back , he would live with us for a few months and then leave for college 2-3 hours away.  When X gets back from his mission, JJ will still be at college.  And then X would also be leaving for college (likely the same one).  Basically, we only need this one dresser for 9 more months.

Also, another little sad snippet.  I cherished Christmas time 2015 because on January 7, Wiyah was going to the Missionary Training Center and then heading off to Vancouver, BC where we wouldn’t see her for a whole year and a half!  It was so sad.  Her last Thanksgiving with us.  Her last Christmas.  Her last New Year’s.

It wasn’t until JJ had been in the MTC for a few weeks that I realized that Thanksgiving had been his last, too.  That Christmas had been his last, too.  That New Year’s had been his last, too.  I was so wrapped up in Wiyah leaving that I didn’t even realize these were lasts for him as well.

This week Baboo is working full time, Wiyah is working 3/4 time, Chi has the week off from his full-time job to attend EFY with Kelvinator.  That leaves me at home with only three children this week. My kids are flying the coop and it’s certainly strange to be a new mom again.

I’m a new mom of adult children and I don’t know what the heck I’m doing.  I’m a new mom of a small family.  I’m a new mom to college kids and missionaries.  I’m a new mom to children dating.  Goodbye to the old me who raised a family of 8.  This is my new life now.

“We are thankful that 90% of our family is home.” –Mack

First of all, the set up at the airport is dumb.  They have these lines that they want families to stay behind which is fine.  I understand, that way you don’t clog up traffic lines for other people disembarking.  But all the families crowd to be at the front.  The problem is that when the missionaries come down, the families are now trapped behind this barrier and the missionaries have to walk all the way around and the families have to move to greet their missionaries.  The family before us, their missionary came around the barrier and then they were all greeting each other right in the front of this area where all the other families were waiting and trying to get a peek.

Baboo was jumping up and down, hopped up on pure adrenaline waiting for her sister.  I was totally cool, calm, and collected.  I saw her step on to the escalator headed down to greet us and I was just so happy and smiling.  The next thing I know my hands are up at my mouth and tears sprang to my eyes to see such a beautiful sight–my own little angel of light coming down to us.

I just lifted up that barrier and told her to come under.  After a moment of hesitation, she did.  And I got the first hug!  I was kind of overcome with just how much I loved this girl.  Then I released her to give everyone else a chance and she went through the family hugging everyone–until she got to Kelvinator.  He had been about five or six inches shorter than her when she left and now he was basically eye to eye with her.  She was shocked and as he approached with his arms wide open, she kind of laughingly pushed him away.  She was not hugging a little boy anymore!  She hugged a few other people before reconciling to that fact and giving him a hug!

Wink found her happy spot and pretty much stayed there for our entire time in the airport.

She was surprised by how tall X was, too.

Whenever Wink vacated her spot, Pink was happy to fill in!

Wiyah’s former mission companion, Sister Yonk, came to the airport as well!

Mack tried to photobomb every single picture.

Back to Back

I think this is the way Wiyah prefers and/or remembers things.

“Everybody make a Wiyah face!”  Baboo and Mack totally nailed it.  Pink got the correct hands.

Wiyah had told us a couple weeks ago that she didn’t just want to go home straight from the airport.  She wanted to DO something.  A hike sounded good to her, but I wondered how enjoyable that would be in a skirt and her church shoes.  In the end we decided to go to the church history museum.

While we were in the car, Wink did a great Zuko impression.  I’ll try to post the video later.

Of The Boss, Wiyah said, “It’s just like having another brother around.”

Wiyah talked to two sister missionaries (not pictured) from Mexico and Italy.  The one from Mexico challenged her to keep up with all the good things she was doing in life.  (Love Sisters!)  Then we bumped into these two missionaries.  One from the Dominican Republic who loved our hair and said she fit into our family.  And the other who was from Italy, but both of her parents were Peruvian.  They both spoke Spanish.  So we talked to them for a while.  When I laughed at a joke in Spanish, the one sister turned to me to ask if I spoke Spanish, too.  I started to reply in Spanish just when the other sister  was talking to some other family members about speaking French.  I’m pretty sure she was asking it in heavily Spanish accented French.  Right then my brain just froze–suspended between languages.  I wasn’t even sure which language was being spoken anymore.  Lots of fun.  These two sisters also invited Wiyah to set specific goals and gave her advice for this transition.  

 

Back run chain.  The Hubba was especially sore from spending two straight days working on landscaping to make our yard look awesome.  Wiyah loves a well kept yard.  With plants.

I have never moved so slowly through a museum before in my life.  Pretty much everyone wanted to be near Wiyah and talk to her and the exhibits, AWESOME THOUGH THEY WERE, could not hold a candle to Wiyah.  So we were perpetually distracted.  Also, Baboo and I hadn’t had time for breakfast that morning so we were starving.  Wiyah had gone to bed at 1:30 am and was up at 3:30 am to catch her flight.  She also hadn’t eaten and so we decided it was time for lunch.  We had a picnic at the park.  Pizza and soda.

While the girls played on the playground, the boys wrestled.

The Hubba pushed Wiyah on the swing for a bit.

The boys continued to wrestle.

Back at home, we continued to talk and I was delighted to remember things about Wiyah that I had forgotten.  At 7pm we headed over to the Stake President’s office for her to be released.  After we got back, one of Wiyah’s friends came over.  So we invited her in so they could sit and chat.  Also, Baboo’s first mission companion, Sister Hart, was in town and stopped by to see Baboo briefly.  That was fun.  I have so much affection for that woman who took my oldest daughter under her wing when she left home!

I could have sat and talked to Wiyah all night.  I just loved hearing her voice and looking at her and listening her stories.  We took her out to purchase some shorts.  After we got home, she and the Hubba went for one of their late night walks.  I tried to blog everything last night but was so exhausted I just completely crashed.

 

My Brain is Fried

This is as good a place as any for me to make a little to do list.  Maybe that will help decrease my stress and also I can maybe get credit for the work I do when I am just sitting at home on the couch on the computer all day.

1.  I think I have three more scholarship applications to put together for Wiyah.
2. One scholarship requires that I go to the high school and have them send official transcripts.  I’m waiting on an email back for a question I had about this.  And I’m also waiting on Baboo to edit a photo of Wiyah that I need for the application.
3. Ideally, I’d still be looking for more scholarships, too.
4. Follow up with people writing letters of recommendations so that they get them turned in before the deadline.
5. Finish updating her FAFSA with the IRS reporting tool.
6. Get copies of our tax transcripts and her tax transcripts sent to the university.
7. I need to call her financial aid officer with a question about her award
8. I need to talk to her counselor to find out why two classes required for freshmen aren’t showing up on the list when I go to register her.
9. Finish registering her for classes (There’s a 23-page instruction booklet for registration!  Wiyah said:  HAHAHAHA Don’t forget. You’re messing with rocket science. Of course there is a 23 page instruction guide.)
10. Send two forms back to the university
11. Pay her housing deposit
12. Fill out housing application
13. Do April’s accounting at work
14. Check voice messages at work
15. Put package together to send to JJ
16. Remind X to get his W2s from work
17. Help X do his taxes
18. Deposit JJ’s tax refund
19. Call dentist about bill discrepancy
20. Set up Mack’s doctor appointment for scout physical for scout camp
21. Refresh the EFY registration page 15 times daily hoping that someone who registered needs to back out so that I can get X registered in the same session as Kelvinator
22. Find out of we are being charged for our new modem
23. Figure out how to set up our new modem
24. Call doctor to figure out my medication for next month
25. Fit in everything else from life–laundry, dishes, meals, shopping, cleaning, spending time with kids, hitting all the end of year performances, etc…

Hermana Wiyah

She is having an explosive end to her mission.  Kelvinator prayed for that.  I thought it was interesting for him to use the term “explosive”.  So it stuck in my head and I remembered to tell Wiyah that that was what he had prayed for.  She confirmed that recent weeks have been explosive.  A couple of Sundays ago, her companionship had 20 investigators show up to church!  TWENTY!  It was crazy in a big, beautiful way!

Today we finally got official confirmation that Wiyah will be released from her mission on July 13th.   That’s just 78 days away!

Also today, her first companion ever–the sister missionary who trained her–was driving through town on her way up to British Columbia to visit her mission.  So she contacted us to see if we had anything we wanted to send up with her.  So we quickly got a package together for her.  I just met this sister missionary about two hours ago.  It was so fun!  She kept saying how much she loved Wiyah and how much alike Wiyah and I were.  She kept laughing at the things I was saying and doing because it was just like Wiyah.  That just makes me happy because I think Wiyah is awesome!

And now the package is on its way!

Little Things

•  Scrolling through my facebook feed and coming across a post by a missionary mom about how excited her daughter is to be entering the MTC in two weeks.  She is going to Wiyah’s mission.  And as I look closer, I realize I went to college with this woman and her husband.  So cool!