Alexander, A Valiant Servant

We are busy getting settled in our new apartment, figuring out all the ins and outs of everything, unpacking, and so forth. 

The island itself has an electronic "access card" that we can use for island amenities, such as entering certain beaches, but also just for entering our block of apartments. Currently I think Andrew, Miriam, Benjamin, and I have that card.

There's also a separate app for our front door. We have a couple of actual keys (made of metal and everything) but we can open the door remotely as well. Andrew was getting that set up this morning before we left for church and he mentioned to the kids that "everyone down to Alex" should have access to the door from their phones/devices.

We didn't get everyone's devices set up with this app, however, because we had to leave for church.

Choir was pretty cool! We love meeting with the Tagalog Ward! 

Because we know how to read music and play the piano the director (who sings with the Tabernacle Choir upon occasion) immediately roped us into being section leaders (so we can break into groups and practice parts separately). I'm in charge of the soprano section, Andrew is in charge of the bass section, Miriam is in charge of the alto section (even though she's a soprano, but she's so musically inclined that he's not worried about her not learning her part), and he takes the tenor section. 

He taught himself how to play the piano as a child, walking from school to the church building and playing music by ear until he figured out how to read music, which, he told us, not many Filipinos can do—so they have rather long rehearsals to give everyone time to learn the music by ear and heart (or h-ear-t). The good news is that last week they had food before the practice and this week they had food after the practice, so it hardly even feels like a burden to be there for so long (though for Phoebe, food after was better than food before—it broke up periods of having to be reverent). 

(Last week Phoebe asked me "Is this the last song?" after every single song during sacrament meeting and I couldn't figure out why she was so impatient to get out of there...until I remembered that she'd already been sitting quite well-behaved through 1.5–2 hours of choir practice...only to then have to sit through sacrament meeting?! It was a lot. She did better this week with some fresh food in her belly).

Here she is eating ube pandesal with cheese filling:

They also had Spanish bread (it's not from Spain; it's just what they call it/a remnant of colonization), milky cheese bread (we rather like this), an ube/rice dish, and a Maja Blanca (a coconut pudding with corn, topped with grated cheese). Here's Zoë showing off her plate:

It was incredible!

So, we ate, and then went down to listen to Miriam play prelude. 

Beside me, Alexander sighed heavily and put his head in his hands.

"What's wrong, little buddy?" I asked him. 

"Nothing much," he said glumly before letting everything bubble out: "I guess we just need to go home and figure out how to get that door app on my device so everyone else can do it, too. It's just kinda tricky because my Gmail is always signed in as Zoë and I don't know how to make it not do that, so I don't even know how I can get to the invitation link in my email while I'm on that device, so I don't even know if we can put the app on that phone and...it's just kind of a lot. But we've got to do it because, as Dad said, it all comes down to me..."

He was really stressed out about this—thinking he was the linchpin of the entire operation.

"Oh, sweet boy," I explained, rubbing his back. "Daddy didn't mean 'down to you' as if you're the one responsible for making this happen. He meant 'down to you' as in a range of people—from Daddy to Alexander, with everyone in between in age order. Except for Phoebe..."

"Wait...what?" he asked lifting his head up suddenly and sitting up a little straighter. 

"Yeah," I laughed. "It's nothing you need to worry about."

This made him feel rather relieved—a little silly, perhaps, but quite a lot better.

And Andrew (our resident "app man" and general "IT guy") figured out solutions to every hurdle Alexander mentioned. I think the only phone we have to install it in is...mine. 

I don't love this "app for that" world we live in. 

There are apps for everything and I just...get really stressed out about creating accounts and passwords and logging in to everything and keeping them all organized on my phone. It's...too much for me.

Luckily there are people like Andrew who can help me keep it all straight because if it all came down to me? Well...I would probably also be sitting with my head in my hands.

Enjoy this picture of Phoebe running down the hall toward our apartment (we are right at the end of the hallway) so she can open the door after Andrew uses his phone to unlock it remotely—Alexander is on the left:

And here's a picture of everyone (except for me and Alexander) sitting on our new couch having family screen time:

Because the family that screens together...leans together? Careens together? Intervenes together? Rages against the machine together?

I don't know...we do something together, surely.

To be fair, the reason we were gathering with our devices in the first place was to have our evening scripture study and since we shipped most of our physical scriptures (and our shipment hasn't arrived yet) we're currently using our phones because...there's an app for that!