Doha preview

It's hot today. For reference, wunderground.com tells me that it's 100°F here, with a "feels like" temperature of 115°F. So of course we had to go outside to feel what that feels like—just for reference.

Mumbly mornings

Last night we did not have a thunderstorm, but Phoebe remained terrified of the non-impending storm all night long and throughout the morning hours. 

See, the kids stayed out late playing night games (kick-the-can and things of that nature) and they noticed that they sky was simply crackling with energy. The clouds were resting about 60 miles away (the storm was over Athens) but we could see the lightning in the clouds on the horizon. The kids were very excited about this—it was quite neat to watch, but felt a little strange because we couldn't really hear any thunder (whether it was too far away or whether the cicadas and katydid screeching simply covered it up, we will never know). 

Phoebe was completely freaked out. 

She wouldn't go to bed. And then when she did finally go to bed she woke up a few hours later in a state of panic over our inevitable doom. 

We tried to explain that the storm had dissipated before it made it to us. We didn't see a drop of rain or hear a single crack of thunder. We looked out at the stars—see how clear the sky is? We looked at the weather forecast—no storm.

We tried lullabies. We tried nightlights. We tried prayers. We tried melatonin. We tried stories. 

We tried simply sleeping snuggled up beside her. 

She remained on high alert. 

Miriam's Organ Recital

Our stake (largely through the efforts of Sister Hammond) arranged a farewell organ recital for Miriam this past Sunday. Miriam has played for stake conferences, our ward, the Magnolia (Spanish) ward, stake Easter events, stake Christmas events, and so forth. She has loved getting to use her talents in this way. Sister Hammond keeps a little sign with (a paraphrase) 1 Corinthians 10:31 on the organ, "Do everything for the glory of God" to help remind her while she plays the organ that...that's why she's sitting there. 

Miriam also feels that music contributes to worship, with variations and flourishes helping people listening to the same old song feel something new and different and—God willing—divine. She has, at times, received pushback for playing classical music during postlude, which she thinks is rather funny because much classical music was written for worship. Our current bishop more or less gives her free reign but that doesn't mean everyone in the congregation approved of her choices (and, boy, did she hear about it...but she's pretty good at ignoring superfluous advice). 

One of Miriam's favourite composers is Bach (despite her program last night being full of French composers). He began most compositions with the inscription J.J. (for Jesu, Juva, meaning Jesus, help) and ended them with S.D.G. (for soli Deo gloria meaning glory to God alone), indicating that his music was his worship. It sounds like he was a fan of 1 Corinthians 10:31!

Procrastination

"I need to call the doctor to make an appointment for you girls," I said to Phoebe and Miriam while we were playing with play dough in our rather empty basement. 

"Oh, for what?" Phoebe asked. "Please not for shots."

"For shots, actually," I said. "I don't remember which ones. I just have a note in my calendar that says to call the doctor to schedule a couple of shots for you. I remember that when you had your check ups you both had the first shot in a two-shot series, so now it's time for the second shot."

"Aw, man!" Phoebe said. Then she asked brightly, "Can you make the appointment for Sunday?"

"Why Sunday?" I asked (not even bothering to tell her that the doctor's office is closed on Sunday). 

"Because I don't like shots," she explained.

"How would making an appointment on Sunday help that?" I asked.

"Because I know I'm only four and I don't have a good sense of time, but I do know that yesterday was Sunday so that means I have a bit of time to go before it's Sunday again."

"I see," I said. "You'd like to put this off for as long as possible."

"Yeah."

"I'll see what I can do."

Their appointment is for Thursday, which is still a good ways off!

Is that the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?

We left to pick Zoë up from spending a week at Rosie and Austin's house right after church on Sunday last week. She had a good and busy time at Rosie's house—they went to a stake primary activity, a water park, a fun farewell party at a playground for one of Rosie's friends, and did a lot of other fun things! 

Rosie and Austin were kind enough to drive down and meet us in Chattanooga (we took a 5-seater car and left Miriam and Benjamin at home because our van is...the way it is) so it wasn't too far of a drive. 

We met at a park by the zoo and the kids enjoyed playing with each other for a couple of hours (even though it was hot) while the grown ups visited. 

Because it's June (June, June, June)!

Last night when we went to bed we didn't have to set an alarm for the morning and this somehow felt significant. Not in an "Oh, boy! Now we'll really get to sleep in!" way (because Phoebe exists), but in a "When was the last time we didn't have to set an alarm because we had somewhere to be the next morning?" kind of way and after reviewing our calendar, it turns out that the last time we didn't have to set an alarm was, in fact, in May. So perhaps it is significant that we didn't have to set an alarm last night (even though Phoebe diligently woke us up in the morning). 

Here's a little smattering of what went down this month:

Last Fun Friday

Phoebe was as pleased as punch to get her ribbons from last night's swim meet—especially her speed breaker ribbon (because it's rainbow coloured). She did not want to "spend" her ribbon to pie a coach in the face (even though I explained that she would still get to keep her ribbon).

Last day of swim team!

The moment Phoebe's been waiting for all summer finally arrived! She is the proud new owner of—not one but—two shiny new ribbons (with more coming tomorrow)!

Summer of Stings

After Phoebe got stung (which was shortly after Zoë got stung) this summer, I ordered a big pack of sting relief pads. It's really just gauze soaked in lidocaine or something, but at least that's something. 

Andrew thought it (re: the box size) was overkill because the kids don't get stung that often, but I was like, "At the rate we're going this summer we're definitely going to need these!"

Cut to today...

I had just finished feeding the kids an early (3:00) dinner so they could be ready for their swim meet later this afternoon (when they prefer to subsist on junk food) and they went outside to let out some energy. 

The peace and quiet of the house was interrupted by some other-worldly screaming. Andrew and I made some mad-dashes from various corners of the house to get to the front door to see what could possibly be happening out there and met Phoebe leading a weeping and wailing Alexander to the front door. 

A bug landed on the back of his head and he had the audacity/instinct to reach back and scratch where it landed. Ba-da-bing-ba-da-boom...ba-da-BOOM! That nasty creature administered a double dose—one for his head and one for his finger.

The Utah Shipment

On Tuesday morning three wonderful young people (from Miriam's seminary class...not from our ward) showed up to help us haul our Utah-bound stuff up to our U-haul moving pods. Our driveway is steep so this was rather a herculean task, but we managed to have the job done in a little under an hour (which felt pretty incredible). 

Here's Benjamin walking down the driveway with the two young men who showed up (we also had a wonderful young woman show up):

A birthday and a swim meet

This morning Andrew took the first set of kids (A and Z) to swimming and then came home so he could be here when our moving pods were delivered. I was getting the second set of kids (B and P) ready for swimming when Andrew came home—and it was a good thing he came home when he did because the pods were delivered half an hour earlier than what they stated our expected delivery window to be!

Phoebe was very excited to get to watch the fork lift at work while I braided her hair. 

I took the second set of kids (B and P) to swimming and brought home our two middle swimmers (A and P). Then I went to the dentist and Miriam went back to the pool to pick up the remaining children (Z and B). 

So it was a bit of a swimming circus in the morning.

And I had to get some metal "buttons" for my particularly stubborn teeth...and having braces makes me feel a little bit grumpy. Honestly, we joke about Miriam sometimes because whenever she comes home from getting her braces tightened she needs, like, a three-hour nap to kind of reboot because it just makes her so grumpy. And I...kind of understand that...because...same.

And there are always so many surprises. Like, you might just think you're going in for an ordinary check up and they're like, "Oh, while we have you, we're just going to put a power chain on..." (or whatever).

And, like, sometimes I'm not emotionally prepared for a power chain (or whatever), okay?

So today I was grumpy that I had to get metal attachments (so much for the invisi- part of Invisalign) and elastics. Especially because my Original Plan was to work through twenty sets of trays over the course of forty weeks. That still sounded long to me, but I was like, "Fine. This will be worth it."

Folks, it has been 585 days since I had my braces put on! 

There are only 280 days in 40 weeks. I have been in braces for more than 83 weeks now. I'm so over this whole process. 

I readily admit that I really do have a very stubborn tooth that still needs some fixing, so it's not like it's the dentist's fault. But I still feel a little grumpy about it. 

Couple with that has just been some stress of trying to figure out what to do about my job now that we're moving overseas...and whether and how to continue working...and how to figure out my course schedule and what kind of tuition I will be paying (which depends a bit on what I figure out about my job). And then some things are happening that make me wonder if I even want to continue in that position and what certain things like "free speech" even mean these days when everything feels so stifling. 

Lucky for me there was cake and ice cream when I got home from the dentist. And then I got to have a nap (to try to get over my grumpiness and my cold and have enough energy to make it through the evening's swim meet), which was lovely. 

A tribute to me because it's almost my birthday!

I rather enjoy when things come full circle.

My niece Rosie was born on a chilly January morning when I was 11 years old. That summer, soon after I turned 12, our family took a trip down to Utah (from Alberta, where we were currently living) and left me with my sister Kelli to be a mother's helper for a week or two.

Now with fireworks

Yesterday we worked right up to (and probably a little past) dinner time and then—covered in spider webs and at least one actual spider (found on my shoulder whilst at the restaurant) from clearing things out of the garage and basement—we took the kids to Waffle House for, well, waffles. 

They thought it was a huge treat! 

Packing and Swimming News II

I've already made the comparison between packing up for this move and packing up a prairie schooner (though honestly I'm sure that packing up my home has involved a lot more luxuries than the pioneers ever had). Today, however, I couldn't help but feel a little bit like Noah, trying to pack up before the big rain!

Naturally, our shipment day was scheduled for the one week of the summer when we'd farmed out all our able-bodied children (Alexander and Phoebe have done a great job of entertaining each other and keeping out from underfoot...but as far as helping with things like packing and carrying heavy stuff...they are...simply less helpful than our bigger kids are). Equally naturally, it was scheduled for the day a tropical storm rolled in off the coast of...Texas...and then grew in strength over land instead of diminishing...and has landed on us with quite a frenzy, really.

We're under a tornado watch until midnight or so and it is raining like the dickens!

But because we did so much work leading up to this date (emphasis on so much work), our professional packers (see: ways in which our move has involved some luxury, above) were in and out before the storm hit! They arrived at 8:30 in the morning (just as we were leaving for swim practice...making us a teensy bit late to our 8:45 start time) and they left right at 2:00 (just as Andrew was leaving to pick Benjamin up from FSY so he could attend this evening's swim meet and, coincidentally, just as it started to rain here).

Here are Phoebe and Alexander in front of our house with the moving truck (which I guess came today after all—we have hardly understood any of the emails from our contact with the moving company):

Packing and swimming news

Thank goodness today is today because I'm not sure I can keep going at the pace at which we've been going for very much longer. In the morning the packers are coming. 

I...don't really know what they're going to do. I thought we had to be ready to pack and load all in one fell swoop, but I was wrong.

The packers are coming tomorrow and they're going to...pack...stuff.

What stuff? I don't know because we actually did a whole lot of the packing ourselves (leaving all the boxes untaped for inspection by the packers) and have everything that might need to go on the boat in The Boat Room. 

And I'm just overwhelmed from making decisions. 

Like, I can't just go into the garage to decide what might need to come on the boat, you know? I have to pull out all the scrap wood and give that away. And then I have to unearth the bocci balls and decide we'll probably play that a time or two. And what about croquet? Well, the croquet set has seen better days so we won't take that. So we start a trash pile (because there's no sense in putting it back "away," having already determined that it's lived its best life...

In short: every project has been much longer than we originally intended it to be.

I still have piles of stuff behind me that I simply...cannot...deal with right now. So I guess none of that stuff is making it on the boat. My brain is just broken from trying to figure out how to live here for the next 50 days with limited stuff and then how to live there for however long with limited stuff and...I just cannot really think about what we will need. 

But I think we'll be fine. 

In other news, Phoebe is going to compete in the swim meet tomorrow—her very first time. She can barely make it across the pool but she is so excited to try for a ribbon.

A visit with Rosie and Austin!

I can't believe how fast the summer is flying. That feels strange to say, considering it's only the middle of June...but it is going fast. We fly out in 51 days (Miriam leaves for Utah in 31) and we have quite a lot left to do!

Rosie wanted to be sure to get one more visit with us, but her calendar is also rather packed with various grandparents coming out for visits (sometimes back-to-back). Our van is on its last legs and we're planning on selling it (for parts, mostly) so don't really want to fix its issues if we can manage. It's okay for getting around town but we really don't know that it has another long-distance trip left in it, especially through those mountains in Tennessee. 

So Rosie came to us! It was a quick overnight visit, but it was so fun to get to see Rosie and Austin and their kiddos! Here's Phoebe and Zoë saying hello to Dean (who was quite relieved to be allowed out of his car seat):

Q&A: Moving Edition

Question: "I don't even know how to conceptualize 5700 lb. Like how much stuff is that? I just can't even fathom it... Is it like one elephant? Two elephants? How do I even know what will fit in my shipment?"

Sara Lewis: "More than you think."

So far this seems to be true (so glad to have military friends who have done this over and over and over again so I can turn to them for advice). We've been collecting things in The Boat Room (a little tip from our friend Amanda) for quite some time now and we spent the last couple of days packing and weighing everything—we are sitting pretty at 56% of our weight limit with everything we have packed so far (and we're packing out in just two days so there's not too much left for us to think about). So that means we can fit in quite a few things from our "maybe" list...

Broken toad

While Andrew and I were moving a (big, heavy) bookcase, he...pulled it into his (bare) foot and smashed his toe. This was on...Saturday...last week. I remember because soon after we got it outside (for someone else to pick up) Andrew had to leave for the adult session of stake conference (stuffing his poor, throbbing toe into his dress shoes). 

It wasn't so painful that he thought it was broken. In fact, he was upset about it because online it said a hematoma of this nature was caused by trauma to the digit. 

"It wasn't trauma!" he fake-raged. "It was a light tap! I'm fine!"

His toe felt differently and remained painful throughout the week. The discolouration of his toenail was quite severe. 

I believe he will lose that toenail. 

He insists he won't. 

But he was in quite a bit of pain all week. I told him that if the pressure kept building we'd have to go to the doctor for a nail trephination to allow the blood stuck under the toenail to come out of his body.

He felt that drilling a hole into his toenail was a terrible idea. 

"It'll just heal on its own!" he insisted. 

"It'll fall off..." I warned.

"It'll be fine."

And then we went swimming as a family on Saturday. The kids love when Andrew comes to the pool because he'll roughhouse with them a bit more than I ever will. So he was in the deep end with them—not even in the pool with them yet (thank goodness), just on the deck, picking them up and chucking them into the water. 

Two times I cried yesterday

I'm sitting alone in what has been dubbed The Boat Room with 51.86666667% of our allotted shipment. I know this because we have been weighing each box and recording its weight in a spreadsheet because we don't know how else we're supposed to know what 5700 lbs of stuff looks like. I'm alone because Rachel is now in Utah, Miriam and Benjamin have left for FSY, Zoë is in Tennessee, and Andrew took Alexander and Phoebe to swim practice. 

I haven't been alone in the house in ages. 

I may have never been alone in this particular house. 

It's quiet and I could be getting stuff done, but instead I'm blogging (which one could argue is getting stuff done). We do need to decide what else needs to come into The Boat Room, but really our rooms are starting to look rather bare. 

Last night I was working in Miriam and Zoë's room, which was very nearly finished (but not quite) and I came across a handful of paper-and-ribbon Olympic medals the kids made for their Kids' Olympics a few summers ago and it made me feel so happy-sad.

Our cul-de-sac has been an oasis for my little kids—they have made such good friends with our neighbourhood kids! I'm so grateful for our wonderful neighbours, who have truly been a village. It's been such a privilege to raise my children alongside these families. Thinking about that made me tear up a bit (and I think that's why packing takes me so much longer than Andrew, who is much more pragmatic about things). 

And then last night I also got to "attend" my cousin's son's baptism (between packing boxes), which was a wonderful surprise! 

Decision fatigue and things like that

The human heart contains four valves that act as one-
way doors, each opening and closing forcing steady

onward flow. Hello, goodbye,
hello, goodbye, hello, goodbye, hello...

This summer it feels as if my heart has shattered one-
hundred times, then pulled itself together again and 

again and perhaps that's just life pushing me forward
and closing the door, ensuring I take the next step

without looking back, without turning
into a pillar of salt. Hello, goodbye, 

hello, goodbye, hello, goodbye,

hello. 

Healthy (like a horse)

Miriam is going to two separate organ camps/workshops out in Utah later this summer. So she'll actually be flying out to Utah by herself and then flying to Doha by herself (which is incredibly brave for a 16-year-old, I think). She's excited though! 

One of these events is a Pipe Organ Encounter, which is hosted at Timp Lodge up in the mountains, with trips to BYU and SLC to play on organs. She's very excited for this camp because they have at least one hike planned for the kids (which is one more hike than she got to go on at YW camp...not even joking). 

We had to turn in some permission forms for her (since it's several days of overnight stay and so forth). Andrew helped her fill out the forms on InDesign (so we could type on the forms) and under "current health conditions" he jokingly wrote "healthy (like a horse)":

Miriam reacted so strongly to that that he went ahead and submitted it in that way!

Miriam was aghast. 

Pool day

Today was Rachel's last full day at home, and it was finally sunny again (her time here has been so, so rainy), so we made her come swimming with us. We won't have time to go swimming (for fun) tomorrow between swim practice and picking Miriam up from YW camp and taking Rachel to the airport and going to our swim meet...so this was also Rachel's last visit to our pool.

Phoebe happily showed Rachel all her swimming skills and even agreed to go into the deep(er) end to work on her diving (though she is still refusing to enter the deep end, I think she'll be there in no time).

Zoë had a bit of a tiff with Benjamin in the deep end and decided that she was ready to go home, so she started walking around the pool wrapped up in her towel with her backpack on, urging everyone to please get out so we could go home (to be fair she'd been at the pool since 8:00 in the morning). 

Then a horsefly flew by and that girl took off her towel and backpack so fast and bolted across the deck and into the pool—with her flip flops still on her feet. There was no way she was going to risk getting bitten!

Once she was back in she was good to play for a little bit longer. We played a fun game of keep away. 

And then just as we were getting ready to go for real, Zoë's triplet friends showed up to play so...we stayed for a few more minutes so she could play with them. Benjamin had a friend that had stayed after swim practice as well, so he was also entertained. But in the end the children's empty stomachs were what called them home (empty in spite of eating an entire box of graham crackers, an entire bag of mini-bagels, a handful of string cheese, and a very large Tupperware container of apple slices while we were at the pool).

Benjamin is 14!

Benjamin turned 14 at Young Men's camp this year, so I sent him to camp with some hastily-made (at midnight), unfrosted (at his request) cupcakes to share with his friends (as you can see his friends were super pumped about this). 

Rachel's mission pictures

This morning was so terribly rainy that swim practice was cancelled for both Alexander and Phoebe—if you can't see the bottom of the pool, that's cause to shut down the pool, and it was just that rainy. 

Rachel and I had planned to go take her mission photos today as well, but that had to wait until after the rain had stopped because we wanted to take them at the temple. I'm not an exceptional photographer, but I have found that if I take several hundred photographs there are usually a handful of keepers...

We wanted to take a picture with a Vietnamese Book of Mormon, but they don't sell those at our distribution center and we forgot to order one early enough to take photos with it. She'll have plenty of opportunity for such photos in the future, I suppose. 

For now we were just happy we got a good window of sunshine to take some pictures in this afternoon:

Visit with Cairo friends

Last night we finally had Kevan and Sara Lewis over for dinner (and by that I mean that Sara offered to bring dinner to us)! They moved to the Atlanta area at the end of last summer but our plans kept falling through so we only managed to connect yesterday. 

They are good, good friends from our time in Cairo. Somehow they trusted us to watch their five children while they were off traveling around the region for Kevan's work (it was during one such trip that "No Fair Day" was instituted). It is wild to me that those kids are mostly all in their 20s now! 

Kevan and Sara are about a decade older than us, so they've always seemed like this little mirror into the future. I remember once Sara telling me that things (parenthood) gets so much better with older kids because they can do magical things like chores and dressing themselves—and she was right! That part of parenting has gotten easier. 

When it's time to go to the pool, I just tell the kids that we're going. I don't have to wrangle them into swimsuits and then then wrestle them until they're covered in sunscreen because they mostly all know how to do that kind of thing for themselves so they just magically appear ready to go. It's pretty great!

Not that small kids aren't fun (they totally are)...they're just more hands-on work than big kids. 

Last night Sara raved about how great being a grandma is, about how wonderful being an empty-nester is. 

In ten years our first five kids will all be adults (we'll just be waiting on Phoebe), so it was good to see Kevan and Sara enjoying that phase of life, too! I'm sure that in ten years when all our kids are (mostly) grown, we'll also be fine. 

Also! Keven and Sara just moved here from Abu Dhabi, where Kevan was the stake executive secretary (I think), so they travelled around the area quite a bit. Sara raved about the ward in Qatar, Kevan told us we need to drive through Saudi Arabia. We talked about old times, got all caught up on what all the kids (and grandkids!) are doing, told very many, very lame jokes, and somehow took zero pictures.

Our next (and last) visit before we move should be Sam's homecoming next month!

Bunk Bed Signatures

Approximately thirteen years ago, Miriam carved her name into the frame of the bunk bed.

Family pictures

Andrew's still "processing" the other pictures we took this afternoon, so I'm sure I'll share more later. 

I'm still "processing" the fact that tonight may very well be the last night I'll ever have all my kids—as kids–under the same roof. 

Taking a family picture was high on my list of priorities while Rachel was here, but not so high that we did it right away or anything...clearly. We basically left it until the last possible moment. This summer has been so busy!

Besides swim team, packing to move, and so many other things, it's been hard to squeeze in a moment.

Crunch time: Broken tiles, broken frames

Years ago my friend's family was getting ready to put their house on the market so they were fixing up a number of things around the house to make it more...marketable...as one (apparently) does. 

I didn't really know about that part of moving because my parents had always rented (at least in my memory to that point) and renters aren't typically too big about changing out mismatched doorknobs or whatever.

My friend's mom told us that we shouldn't do what she was doing (frantically making improvements on her house so that the next owners could enjoy those changes) but should instead make the improvements for myself so that I get to enjoy them. 

Cool advice, but perhaps not ultimately practical.

We've tried to make changes that we might be able to enjoy here, but mostly we just tried to keep up with the upkeep. I would say that we did get to enjoy the newly renovated basement (that was a good move) and the upstairs hallway bathroom has also been quite lovely. 

Because remember that one time when the upstairs bathroom fell into the downstairs bathroom?

That was back in 2021—in case you're keep track—so quite literally five years ago. 

We finished fixing the upstairs bathroom but have not touched the downstairs bathroom. 

Except to install a $600 towel rack in 2023. We patched up that issue and painted the bathroom walls yellow and then I bought a shower curtain that I felt kind of tied in the yellow walls, purple cabinet, and blue (raw drywall) ceiling and we called it a day...for another three years.

Our realtor strongly advised us to fix that bathroom up before listing our house, so that's what we did this week! Because we know nothing about fixing things (see: $600 towel rack) we hired our favourite handyman and let him work his magic. 

He actually laughed when he was our bathroom floor, which has been crumbling under our feet for the past seven years (and which has always been on our list of things to fix but which has always been bumped down on our list of priorities). 

"Who decided to use wall tile on the floor?!" he asked. 

Zoë's birthday party (family edition)

Quick! Let's finish talking about Zoë's birthday before Benjamin comes home from YM camp and we finally celebrate his birthday! 

Phoebe helped me wrap Zoë's birthday presents. We talked the whole time about how we wrap them so they can be a surprise. Why? Because it's fun to have a little surprise every now and again. But the present wrapper's job is very serious because the present wrapper knows what the surprises are and yet must keep that information to themselves. 

Tricky, tricky business, but Phoebe swore she was up to the task.

We brought the presents out. Zoë opened the present from Phoebe first.

"It feels like a rock," Zoë guessed. 

"It is a rock!" Phoebe said.

Stings and things

Another swim meet is in the books!

Here's Alexander, doing very well on his breast stroke (he ended up in third place overall, which is pretty cool—I think he got third last week, too):

Zoë had a bit of a harder time this meet—her goggles kept coming off on her entries (which was tricky and difficult) and she had some hard events (a 100-IM and a 50-fly, for example), plus she moved up an age group and is on the smaller side of things this year. But I'm sure she'll find a good stride soon enough! It's good to be challenged.

Birthday Buddies

Our family has (in my opinion) a surprising  number of birthday buddies! 

Growing up, my grandfathers (my mom's dad and my dad's dad) shared a birthday (September 8) so I was used to the idea of sharing birthdays. And then, of course, they also shared that day with my grandpa's twin sister (on account of being twins). 

Later, my brother David and Andrew's Grandpa Frank would share a birthday (they're not related, but they're on my mental calendar together).

Then my sister Kelli had twins, so they share a birthday. 

All of that doesn't feel too cluttered or unusual. But then...

• Our cousin Carter was born on our cousin Kayl's birthday 
• Alexander was born on Auntie K's birthday
• Ethan was born on Naanii's birthday
• And just recently Chloe was born on Benjamin's birthday!

Those last four feel particularly funny to me because whereas before all the shared birthdays had been either through marriage (in-laws with the same birthdays) or twinship (sharing a womb), all of a sudden we have a spate of blood relatives sharing birthdays through random happenstance! 

Of course, my extended family is ginormous and there are lots of birthday buddies when we start counting, like, second cousins and things. But among first cousins? We didn't have so many people overlapping!

Here's a picture of Benjamin in the wee hours of his birthday (he stayed up late playing Hand and Foot and then left for scout camp in the morning, so we haven't really celebrated his birthday yet, although I did send him to camp with cupcakes).

And here's my brother David holding his third baby, Chloe, who was born in the afternoon on Benjamin's birthday!

What a wonderful birthday present!

Rachel's mission call!

At 4:00 this afternoon (2:00 MST), we were in the process of chucking our couch off our second storey deck (for not the first time—that thing is sturdy) when Rachel suddenly exclaimed, "I got my mission call! My mission call is here! I have an email with my mission call in it! What do I do?! Guys! What do I do?!"

"Well, first I guess we'll finish pushing this couch off the deck that we have balanced on the railing and then you'll open your mission call."

Listen...

I have tried to give these couches away on multiple occasions on multiple platforms. No one wants them. They're a little scratched up (thanks, Waffles) and definitely not trendy. Our local Goodwill didn't want them. So they were destined for the landfill one way or another. 

We could have kept them to sit on for the next little while, but Andrew started this project with Miriam and Benjamin while I was in a meeting and by the time I came out they had already taken a saw and crowbar to it and were working on the first deck-chuck. So we were pretty committed to the destruction path at that point. 

He figures that this way we can sneak bits of the couch into the garbage can every week and save on the cost of disposing it. 

Anyway, we threw the couch off the balcony for the second time and then gathered around to watch Rachel open her mission call. She didn't want a big to-do about it (and even told me that if came while she was in Florida—she drove down to Florida for Corbin's mission farewell...he's off to Argentina soon—that she would just open it there and text me about it so I guess we're lucky it arrived the day after she got home from Florida), but we did take a minute to have everyone make a quick guess about where she might go.

Zoë: Tanzania or France

Alexander: Utah
Miriam: Berlin

Benjamin: Stockholm

Dad: Pennsylvania

Mom: Spanish Speaking or Canada

Phoebe: California

Cypress knees

I'm just waiting for the rest of the photos from my phone to synch with my computer so I can share the day's actual exciting news. In the meantime, here's a photo of a mushroom growing beside the knobby knee of a bald cypress. 

It's one of my favourite trees here in the south because aside from being very pretty it's rather unique. It's a deciduous conifer and loses its needles every fall (it was rather alarming the first time I saw a little grove of these around a pond all seemingly "die"). They put out little pneumatophores—these knee-like projections—that are thought to either be used to bring air to drowning roots or anchor the trees better. 

This particular patch of knees was growing inside the playground at the park near the pool (where Phoebe and I were killing time while waiting for Benjamin to get out of his practice).

(C)Rafty Kids

After many months of planning and research and milk jug collecting, Benjamin and his friends got together this afternoon to build a raft. And I'm so happy for them! 

They're making plans for its maiden voyage in the lake near J's house—they've got lifejackets and everything. And, like I said, I'm just so happy for them.