Denver

Zach has been called to serve in the Denver, Colorado South mission--Spanish-speaking! He reports to the Missionary Training Center on June 23 to begin this wonderful adventure! We learned that 34% of the population of Denver is Hispanic, so we have great hopes that he will be able to use his Spanish daily! However, my sweet Argentine friend Silvia reminded me that he will not be speaking "real Spanish", but probably more of a "Mexican-Spanish". Among the latinos in South America, there are great debates about who speaks "real Spanish" (My vote? ?The most beautiful and understandable Spanish belongs to the Columbians!)

Zach's mission covers the south area of Denver, goes south to the New Mexico stateline, west to the Utah stateline, and north to the Wyoming stateline--even taking in a bit of Wyoming! It's funny, because I would never have thought Zach would go to a place like Denver, but I feel that he will do really well in Colorado and will have the opportunity to work with the Latino people--whom he has a great love and affinity for.

Now the fun begins--two months and lots of preparation, prayer and planning! He is thrilled to be serving and is really looking forward to going!

Blink

Life is a blink…
It just wasn’t that long ago that we all said our sad “goodbyes” to Zach at the airport as he started off to BYU. That was last August—it is now April! And now I am preparing for another quick hello as he returns home from school and a long goodbye as we await his mission call. It’s quite an experience---these mission calls! Paper work and doctor’s visits, shots, buying suits, white shirts, ties—all the preparations needed to put your “personal life” on hold for the next two years.

I recently listened to a talk by Elder Ronald Rasband, a leader in our church who talked about how missionaries are “called” or assigned to different areas of the world. (I've included the 11 minute video below) It’s truly an inspired process, with each missionary going to the place chosen just for them! Zach has kept us updated on all of his freshman buddies who recently submitted their mission papers and have received their assignments—he has friends going to London, Jamaica, Oklahoma City, and Long Beach, California—Cambodian-speaking! In our family alone, we have had missionaries serve in Tokyo and Nagoya, Bangkok, Buenos Aires, France, Chile, Puerto Rico, New Zealand, and Australia!

We are anxiously waiting and waiting for his mission call to come…currently at 13 days and counting! It’s been an exciting time for our family as we race to the mailbox daily, place bets (in a very non-gambling sort-of-way) on where he’s going—Scott and I even bet “dishes for a week” if it arrives before Friday! (Scott later withdrew his “bet”—for fear he’d actually have to do these dishes ALONE for a whole week...lame, I know.)

I am thrilled Zach is coming home from BYU--I've missed him a bunch! I think it was the experience for him that we hoped it might be. But here he goes again, on what I think will be one of the great experiences of his life…more to come soon—hopefully an announcement!

Kid Pix

I've been working on a little scrapbooking project for my sister’s family. And while I was in Utah a couple of weeks ago, I went through a few of my Mom’s pictures to include in this scrapbook. It took me a while to go through everything, but it was fun to go back in time... I think my Mom has saved every picture, school paper, and art project she received from her kids and grandkids throughout the years. Maybe that’s part of the fun of going back home—so many things are EXACTLY the same way they were when you left. In some ways it is like you never left home… and for my Mom she seems really “o.k.” about keeping it that way!

So as I was searching for pictures, I came across these few that caught my attention. I now see that some things never change and other things will never be the same…

This is Carly when she was probably five...and this is why she earned her nickname “Mop Top”—she had this crazy, curly, long hair--but she liked it that way and we kept it! This picture is what I remember of her as a little girl--always smiling, usually with a ring of chocolate around her mouth--chocolate was her 5th food group. No chocolate here, but the hair, the smile, the jacket is vintage Carly. These days she would rather die than leave the house with curly hair and she is up at 5:15 a.m. every morning to make sure it doesn't happen.

Here is Josh hugging Carly—one of those things that are not quite the same these days. I need to show Josh this picture as I think he has forgotten completely how to give people hugs. I look at this picture and I think he really seems to be sincerely giving her an “I Love You” kind of hug. These days, Josh just kind of bumps my shoulder as a hug—almost like a mini body slam. Scott tries to coach him and give him hugging lessons--you can imagine how excited Josh is about that... Obviously hugging your mom is part of the “I’m kind of embarrassed to know you ” phase.

These last two made me laugh out loud. Check out Zach and Josh in their argyle and stripes… and the last is Josh (as a blonde) when we lived in California. Look at that bulging belly and diaper bottom—Funny, eh...the only time this shape is en vogue is when your two... Oh, I miss our “beach days”!

So...moral of my post? Hug those little ones while they still hug you back and no matter how hip you think you dress your kids, they will someday laugh at your fashion choices!