Drew On A Mission

I realized today that I have never posted this picture, taken at the Monticello Temple with Kimbrey's camera by a nice Temple worker from Grand Junction. This is our family's contribution to divirsity. This was the day Drew went through the Temple, and it was cold and snowy in Monticello, as you can see.

And in the spirit of Drew being on a mission, I thought I would share the cute letter we got from him in the mail today. He says:
Happy New Year Familia! 'K, so first things first I got more shots today. I don't know if I told you about the first ones, but the grand total for today is $93.00. Today's shot was the final HEP series, and the other two were a typhoid vaccine and a tetanus and diphtheria booster.
So, I went to the RC (call center) today and I didn't get any calls, but I'm definitely going back. I don't know how Brennan thought it was so bad. Maybe I'll find out. So today I met a Brian Bigalow? He says he knows people in Moab and he is friends with Kandace Hugentobler and Kyle Cannon. He said his Mom knows Mom - mine. (Me, Carri. I don't know who he's talking about. )
This letter has been continued to the following day. O.K., for real now Happy New Year. But really I don't think the RC is that bad. What is bad, though, is early morning service and having to clean all of the sinks in a residence hall. That is horrible. Trust me, I know. Also bad is not having gym for three days in a row. Ask me about it, I dare you.
By the way, thanks for all the "food" everyone, I'm gonna be really fat now. But it really was nice to be able to have all that stuff again. They don't sell anything good in the bookstore.
I should go now, so talk to you again on Wednesday! Love, Elder Cozzens

Missionary Letters . . .Ahhhhhh. Balm for an Empty Nester Mother's broken heart :)

The Place Where I Work

I accidentally took my camera to work today. It was part of an armload of "stuff" I was putting away on my way out the door but apparently the camera felt way too natural in my hand because when I got to work it was still there. And it was too cold to leave it in the car all day. Because I live in a frozen wasteland now. So I took my camera to work, and a co-worker snapped this picture of me . . . working. This is where I work. It's a cold place as you can tell by the fleece lined jacket I wear all day, but there are good people there, including the one who is holding a bundle of papers in front of her face. She's camera shy.

This is Danny . . . not working. He just sits at his desk all day with a pen in hand staring at a pile of papers and drinking his soda. He took the blurry picture of me working above. He is the most technologically illiterate person I know.

When he's not sitting at his desk pretending to work, you'll find him hangin' out with one of the other guys I work with. Today it was Travis. I'm pretty sure they were looking at hunting videos on youtube. Or shopping at Cabella's on line. What they were NOT doing was working. They work pretty hard and expend a lot of energy NOT working. If we could only harness that . . .

The Hardest Thing I've Ever Done . .

was to let this kid walk out of my house, get in his car, and head back to school.

Isn't he cute standing there in his little Converse tennis shoes and jacket that is "the goat!"? Oh . . . my heart hurts, my head hurts, my stomach hurts.

Before he left, Dave cooked steamed lobster for dinner. I don't like lobster. I ate left-over pizza.

But Brennan and Dave ate the lobster, and only lobster, nothing else. And that is because Dave thought he was cooking up some instant potatoes to go with the lobster. Yummy instant potato pearls that turned out to be a big ol' pan full of instant milk. But the lobster was the hardest, and he got THAT right. Good job Dave. Good Bye Brennan.

The After Christmas Funk . . .

it's knocking hard at the door. It came while I was taking down the Christmas tree - the one Drew helped me put up and I had to stop! So I did this instead . . .

I finish TWO projects, both of which had been waiting at least three years to come to fruition. The quilt, one I was quilting to take to the cabin, has been on the quilting frames through two cabin summers. The tile picture I actually designed my bathroom around. Picked out the tile and picked out the paint based on the colors in the picture and it has taken me an untold number of years to grout and hang the thing. And now she's done :)

By the way, does anyone else out there have a husband who hangs their pictures using a level? Hangs pictures, places furniture, plants the garden. If so, you might be married to an engineer.
He makes me smile, and it kind of lifts the funk :)

A New Year, An Empty Nest

There, I said it out loud . . . sort of. I've been whispering it in my mind for weeks now, friends have been nodding, smiling and saying it to me for months. With all the extra people we've had around our house the past year I had secretly convinced myself it would never happen. A wish unfulfilled, for Brennan told me today that he's leaving on Sunday to head back to school and when he leaves, our nest is empty. What is a mother who's whole world is centered around caring and nurturing to do when there's no one left to care for or nurture? She grasps at straws, that's what. And that is what I did today, the first day of 2010. And those straws I grasped at today were called "mending".

This is Brennan's new jacket. He describes is as "the goat!!" (The goat is good, by the way, really, really good) But the pretty fabric lining the pockets of the jacket are too delicate for the cold hands that have been stuffed into said pockets, and one pocket was torn. So I took this jacket apart to get to the inside lining of the pocket and I fixed it.
Now, you have to know that I don't mend. I've explained to Dave many times that my sewing ability is creatively rooted, there is really nothing functional about it. But today I was hanging on to a thread, so to speak, so I mended. Not only Brennan's jacket, but his belt, his backpack and his jeans, which he wanted patched to look like he had bought them that way. But since my sewing ability is creatively rooted, I couldn't remember how to change my machine to the stitch that looks like you bought those jeans from the store looking that way, so this he what he got. (It looks better close up, don't you think?)

I haven't seen these in the stores yet, but I think if Brennan wears them around campus enough, they are going to catch on. And if not, at least it might ratify the fact that my sewing ability is rooted in creativity. There is nothing functional about it.

The Future . . .

Is in these faces. And I'm not even worried!

About ten hours after arriving home from dropping Drew off at the MTC (sob) I got back in the car and headed BACK to Salt Lake with all of these girls. Plus one more that we couldn't get to put her phone down long enough to jump in the picture.

Oh, there she is, the one in the back talking on her phone. That's Bonnie and she seriously talked on her cell phone the ENTIRE time we were ohhhing and Ahhhing over the lights at Temple Square. Kids these days :)

I drove the Landcruiser CLEAR FULL of Beehives. I now know why they are called Beehives!! They are busy little people, these Beehives. They NEVER sleep, and they don't stop TALKING. EVER! But they are so darn cute :)

We stayed in the home of a very nice lady in Riverton who let us sleep on her white carpet and came running every time we couldn't get her front door to open. I said, "Sorry we can't open your door, but we're from the country." She insisted the problem was with her door, not with us. See, very nice lady.These cute girls were the lone Laurels. They rode in a whole separate car and slept all the way. They left the Beehives to me. Thanks girls.

And this cute girl in one of our fearless leaders. She had just won those beads in a killer White Elephant game. I won a toilet plunger. I have no White Elephant game skills at all. But I had fun!! And I'm told that is all that matters. That and helping to build the future. I love it!

He's A Missionary Now . . .

We love you, we will miss you, but what an adventure lies ahead!