Mission Calls!!!

Our family is sending not one, but TWO missionaries out this year!

Jason got his mission call on August 14. He's going to Guadalajara Mexico, reporting to the Mexico City Missionary Training Center on November 26. (Yes, it's Spanish speaking.)

Kristie got her mission call today! She flew home so she could open it with her friends. She's going to Helsinki Finland. She reports on March 4.

I'm so proud of my siblings for devoting the next two years to serving the Lord! We will miss them very much--that will be half of the kids gone. But I know they are doing the Lord's work, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Nobody can make a puppyface like a puppy

How could anyone say no to this sweet little face?

5 Year Old Wisdom

So I flew home yesterday night, so I could be here today when Jason went through the temple in preparation for his mission.

I sat next to an adorable five year old and his mom. He started talking right away and kept me entertained all the way through the flight. His mom tried to get him to watch the old Hanna Barbara Godzilla cartoon on her Ipad (did you know that was a thing? I didn't know that was a thing) to quiet him down, I think, but he invited me to watch with him, and then he narrated every single thing that happened. The volume was turned down low, so it was hard to hear the dialogue, but fortunately he's watched it enough that he could quote most of it! It was adorable, and it made for one of my favorite flights ever.

Favorite quotes:

"I can lift two bags over my head! I can even lift a brick!"
"Look, I am tough. I can pinch myself with no ows!"
"You like me, huh?" (said adorable unassumingly big brown eyes... ah, the innocent of youth! Yes, of course I liked him)
"I can count! *successfully counts to 30, then* 45, 200, 200 million..."
"Did you know my teeth go down into my gums? Look at how sharp they are!"
"I'm going to lick your arm Mom! (to me) Sometimes I lick everything. I won't lick you, though."
"This is my man voice! I'm a real man!"
"I'm going to miss you!"

Little boy: "We live in Utah Murray! Where do you live?"
Me: "I live in Utah Provo."
Little boy: "What is that?"
Me: "It's.... uh, it's a city. It's where BYU is..."
Little boy: "B...Y...U? What's that?"
Me: "It's a school I used to go to."
Little boy: "Oh. It's like kindergarten!"
Little boy's mom: "No, honey, it's a long time after kindergarten. It's a college. College is somewhere you go when you are very smart."
Little boy: "I'm very smart!"
Little boy's mom: "Yes, you are. You're going to go to college, right?"
Little boy: "I should be in college already!"

He was great. Little kids are the best!

Geocaching

So.... embarrassing flashback story number #5,314...

When I was a kid, I loved playing spies.

I don't know why, but I particularly loved playing this game at my grandparents' house, often with my sister Shauna and my cousin Natalie. I came up with all these ridiculous missions that involved sneaking around trying to be stealthy.

Well, I think I've found the grown-up version of Spies. This last weekend, my roommate Melissa and I went Geocaching! It was my first time.

If you're like me, you might have heard of Geocaching, but you don't know quite what it is. It's basically like a never ending treasure hunt that requires GPS. Once you sign up on their website (it's free!) and download their app, you have access to all this treasure. Your map lights up with circles representing caches people have stashed all over the place. Here in Provo, Geocaching is fairly popular, so there are TONS.

You pick a dot, follow the map until you're in range, and then you can read the hints for what you are looking for and where it is. Then you commence searching the area to find it, being as stealthy as possible--you don't want Muggles (non-Geocachers) to see you.

Here's me with one of the three caches we tracked down Friday night:
(slight spoiler alert for Geocachers in Provo....)



Uber spoiler alert: It was hidden inside a fence post that turned out to be hollow with a removable top. How cool is that?!?

I still need to work on the stealthy part. :) But I had a blast trying this out. I love that you can do it anywhere. And I like the whole "secret club" aspect of it too... I don't wanna be a Muggle!

Right now I'm trying to convince all my friends and family to give it a try too. If you haven't, you really should!

Exciting News

So.... I got an interesting email today.

A couple years ago, I published a research article called "Examining the Early Evidence for Self-directed Marriage and Relationship Education: A Meta-analytic Study" in the Journal of Family Relations.

Today, I received word that the National Council on Family Relations would like to include my article in the next edition of their Family Life Education textbook... A textbook I used in a couple classes during my time at BYU.

 

 

I may be a little bit excited. :)

BYU Inauguration

Yesterday I had the chance to go to the BYU Inauguration ceremony for the new BYU President, Kevin Worthen. Since BYU is a Church school, the First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve Apostles are all on the board of trustees. The entire First Presidency came, as well as Elder Nelson (he conducted), Elder Oaks, and Elder Holland (since they were past BYU Presidents). The Relief Society General President and the Young Women's General President were there too.

Shauna, Kristie, and I managed to get seats in the front row off to the side. The First Presidency and Elder Nelson came in the entrance right beside us--and all the General Authorities exited through that door later, so they all walked past just a few feet away! Shauna got a video, I'll have to see if she'll send me a copy to share.

After the GAs came President Cecil O. Samuelson and his wife, Sharon, came right past us. Pres. Samuelson has been President as long as I've been in Provo. He's always had a great love for BYU and all of the students here. I will miss him. As he walked out, the students gave him a round of applause for all of his service. I admit I teared up a little bit watching him go.

But I know the new President is called of God. He gave an amazing speech. I know he'll be an excellent President.

Summer in Review

Time to look back at my Summer Bucket List! It looks like I got about 2/3 of my goals accomplished... not bad, not bad.

Honestly, I think this was my best summer ever. :) Definite highlights were the trip to San Diego and the trip to Lake Powell & Bryce Canyon. Also I loved spending the last month at home, chilling with my family. This summer I really took advantage of the flexibility of my job (working from home) and didn't hesitate to travel around for "working vacations" (although don't worry, the two trips I mentioned above were definitely legit vacations :).

So... now that summer's over... here's to making this the best fall ever!! Maybe I should try making a fall bucket list? Hmm... That could be fun. I'll think on that.