losing my mind....

Once again this week, I find my mind repeatedly being hijacked by age, lack of sleep, chocolate deprivation (I went for two days without it)  or some other horrific thing. 

I was proud of myself that I remembered the Room Mother meeting at 4:00 p.m, just not so proud that I arrived at said meeting, a day late.

I sent Josh to pick up a carpool for me on Friday, trouble is, Friday isn't even my day for carpool.  Josh felt silly pulling up right behind another mom in our carpool and having the kids look back and forth, trying to guess which vehicle to get into.

And today, I wore two different earrings to church.   I don't know what's worse, realizing that I went around all day mismatched,  or losing one of them and now have two pairs of earrings missing a partner. Although this wasn't quite as bad as when I wore two different shoes to church and didn't realize it until I sat down and glanced at my feet.  (I was eight plus months pregnant at the time and had long since lost sight of my feet, so I guess that situation can't be blamed on my brain.)

just gotta smile...

As my kids get older they don't say nearly as many funny things as they did when they were young.  But the past couple weeks these are a few things I've heard.

Ryan has to do volunteer service for one of his classes and there weren't many options left that fit his schedule.  This is the text I got from him.. "Here's one...I could teach Zumba to senior citizens."  (Let's just say Ry got his grace from me, so after hysterically laughing at the thought of him teaching Zumba,  we were both relieved when he found another option.)  :)

Josh when asked about his golf game, "I knew it was going to be bad when I had lost ten balls by the fourth hole..."

Mark talking to Cassidy about college football (this was before the BYU UTAH fiasco)  "BYU is the best because they are dependant and Utah is the worst because they are in the Bottom 12 conference"

Cassie when I cut open a seeded watermelon, "Wow, so that's what they look like with seeds!" (I must be a lazy fruit buyer)

Mark, when asked if his room was clean so he could go play, "yeah, it's all done, except the bed and the floor"  (the walls must have looked good I guess)

What would we do without our kids to make us smile.

mission call....

The wait was over and on Friday night the Christensen house was full of family, friends one large map, a middle aged mother who had aged ten years in the last two days, and finally one very anxious college student.  All predictions were noted on a large map and then the envelope was opened...

The Alpine-German Speaking mission.  We all took a minute to figure out just where that was.  It is a recently reorganized mission that comprises Southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein.  A little background on Ryan is he is a German fanatic.  He has had German in school the past four years, and is constantly mumbling German phrases around the house that always sound like someone is sneezing or clearing their throat.  He answers questions in German and then gets frustrated when I don't respond.  I tell him that if he wants my attention, he needs to speak in our native tongue.  So to say he was overwhelmed and thrilled is an understatement. Out of five countries in the world that speak German, he is going to four of them.  If you didn't notice in the video, he mentioned he has been reading the Book of  Mormon in German this past year and the night he received his call he was finishing the last chapter.  I got teary when he said that, and to see him a bit choked up didn't help my waterworks one bit!

 

We were all so grateful to have had so many people over here and also supporting us from a distance.  We had cell phones on speaker, video chat and facebook all going simultaneously.  Ry leaves on January 18th, and I'm glad to have him home after this semester for the holidays.  It's a bit daunting to think of all the things we need to accomplish in the next few months and with him not here at home some things will be a bit of a challenge.  I am excited for this opportunity he will have to travel to a place he already loves, and get to share something he loves even more. 

patience is a virtue???

Really?  I'm in trouble.  By this definition, I am truly not a virtuous person.  I am the one who:

eats the cookie dough because baking the cookies takes too long;

learned how to wrap presents as a child by sneaking under the Christmas tree and unwrapping my gifts early each year.

consistently runs yellow (ok, orange) lights because waiting at the intersection might add two minutes to my day

changes lines multiple times in the grocery store, then watches to see if I actually picked the quicker line (usually I don't)

in a traffic jam, changes lanes multiple times in a futile attempt to find the quicker lane, (do you see a pattern here?)

bites my nails, because waiting for them to grow takes too long

nearly held a hospital hostage when pregnant with Josh because they had cancelled all inductions for the day, ("We'll try to fit you in tomorrow," they said.  As in I have to wait 24 hours?  Do you see this pregnant belly with a nearly ten pound child?  I don't think so!)

So after 41 and a half years of being impatient, the universe decided to have a good laugh at my expense today.  An hour ago, Ryan's mission call came in the mail, and since he is three hours south at college, I have to wait until Friday night to find out where he will be spending the next two years of his life!!  Is this fair?  After totally looking the large envelope over I think the church has made a mom proof envelope.  Can't see through the thing or maneuver anything through the plastic window in the center.  Rude!!  The kids are obviously worried about me  opening it, because they keep trying to get it and hide it somewhere.  Maybe they are running some secret agent mission for Ryan, who knows!  All I know is it's staring at me from  across the room and just daring me to open it.  Please pray for it's safety and protection until Ryan comes home in exactly fifty hours!  Not that I'm counting or anything.