Bud is Home!

My awesome nephew, Christian (aka Bud to me and most of his other aunties), came home from his mission today. For those of you not of my faith, I will explain that at the age of 19 a young man can choose to submit paperwork to serve as a full-time missionary. He must pay his own way, agree to go anywhere in the world and must abide by a very rigorous schedule and some very strict guidelines (which includes spending every bit of your time, other than a few hours per week allowed to write a letter home, shop, and do laundry called "preparation day" in the service of his fellowman). His main goals during that time are to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to serve God's children in any way that He can. Girls also have the opportunity to do this, if they'd like, when they turn 21. I chose to do it and was asked to serve in San Antonio, Texas (Spanish speaking). The time I spent as a missionary was extremely difficult and extremely rewarding. I wouldn't give up that time for anything in the world. With all of the choices and freedoms that a young man has by the time he is 19, I am always amazed at how many choose to go forward. I have already had two nephews serve missions, both sons of my oldest brother, Mark. Adam served in California and Paul served in Oregon. Mark's youngest son, James, is currently serving a mission in Japan. Christian's father as well as all of the uncles and his grandfather on my side of the family served missions as well, so he had a lot of good examples already set for him. But still, it is a very individual decision and from personal experience, I can tell you that a mission is definitely no vacation and is not something that you can just coast through. It takes a lot of dedication and strength (physical, mental, and spiritual). I can also tell you that if you serve a mission and if you are obedient, you will forever be changed for the better.

I never had any doubt that Christian would choose to serve a mission. Christian is faithful and kind. I remember even as a young boy how he would be so bothered if he heard kids teasing others or making fun of them. He is very thoughtful and sensitive. He loves God and has a testimony of the atonement of Jesus Christ. He is also very funny, cool, athletic, musically talented, and handsome. I have loved this boy since the day he was born and am so proud of him!
One of the requirements during these two years is that the missionary have no contact in person or by phone with family or friends. He may write once per week and that is all, with the exception of a phone call on Christmas and Mother's Day. My sister, Kathy, never thought she could make it. Although she was very happy and proud that he chose to serve a mission, when he left she was practically inconsolable. But she got stronger and stronger and happier and happier as she saw what an incredible man her boy was becoming. And today, after serving with all of his heart in the heat of Jamaica, he is home! I caught him reuniting with his mom. She was SO nervous at the airport waiting for his arrival! We discussed that the feelings were actually similar to when you are in delivery awaiting the birth of a child.

Below is one of the last photos that Christian sent to us. He spent the majority of his mission in Kingston and neighboring areas that were extremely poor, dirty, and hot. He often referred to these areas as the "cement jungles". They were also dangerous and he witnessed some very sad and terrible things. But he loved the people, he served them and God tirelessly, and he changed many lives. His last area (another side note for those of you not of my faith, missionaries are always in sets of two for safety and companionship and are switched from one area of the mission to another every couple of months) was out on the coast. I am so glad that he was able to spend this most memorable time in such a beautiful area. He still worked with people and served in areas that were dirt poor, but he walked home along cliffs overlooking the ocean each night. This photo makes me smile and also makes me want to cry because coming home from a mission is very difficult and is very sad in many ways. Of course you are excited to be with your family and friends again and happy to be able to do all the things you weren't allowed to do before (like be alone with a member of the opposite sex, sleep in, and watch a movie!), but there is also a great sense of loss as you have to leave behind the place and the people that have become your whole life. Christian lamented the fact that whenever he returns to Jamaica in the future, he will just seem to everybody as another white tourist, whereas for these two years many have taken him in as one of their own.Christian, if you see this, know that we all love you and are SO proud of you! We are glad to have you home and will pray for you as you adjust back to a life that by nature is much less spiritual. We will also pray for the beautiful Jamaican people that you love so much. I'm sure many of them are mourning your absence.

Picture Tag

I was actually not tagged to do this post. I saw it here. I am like one of those kids watching other kids play tag that suddenly starts trying to run with them to play too. String Cheese is good at that type of thing. Anyway, I thought it looked like my type of "tag" game. I'm not so much for the regular old fill-in-the-blank type deals, but this one really appealed to me and I had a lot of fun "borrowing" these images.

MY FIRST NAME:

MY LAST NAME:

THE CITY I WAS BORN IN:

A PAST LOVE:

MY FAVORITE ANIMAL:

MY FAVORITE CITY:

MY FAVORITE FOOD:

MY FAVORITE COLOR:

ONE OF MY BAD HABITS:

MY FIRST JOB:

MY FUTURE JOB:

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

*If you can't watch the video, please click on this link to watch the same thing on YouTube. This is my favorite part of this deal because I really want to have Matt's job when I grow up!*

A PLACE I WANT TO VISIT:

Okay, so now that I'm done, I thought that was really fun! So, now, who to tag? Hm...I would like to see you all do it. Some of you hate to be tagged and others feel left out when they're not tagged. But for the sake of the game I will tag my Dancing Nancies, Megan, Tash, Sarah, and Zhateal. You're supposed to do this and then tag some other people. If you're not sure how to borrow images from Google or Yahoo or something then just let me know and I can help you.

Dancing Nancies

and this Nancy:

were doing some very lovely and very funny dancing for me. Oh man, you guys are funny in my imagination at this hour! Nancy #1, I hope that you are happy that I've dedicated two posts to you this week. I hope you made it home safely and why didn't you tell me you sold your house? Nancy #2, did you see how nice the floors look and did you know that it was your husband that did those for me? I did the small room then gave up. Chad did a great job and only about 900,000 times faster than I could do it. Oh, and please come to RS tomorrow and smile at me like you always do so I will think that I am doing okay and my lesson doesn't s-u-c-k

I love you, my two DANCING NANCIES and I hope that anonymous hater doesn't make a hate comment about you and I hope that one day the two of you will be able to dance together in person. Oh man, I might regret this post in the morning. I think I'm pretty funny at this hour! I wonder how funny the RS will think I am tomorrow when they know I spent all this time blogging and playlisting instead of praying harder about how to apply this lesson to our lives. That is not so funny. Good night.

Blogger Hate Mail

I am laughing SO HARD RIGHT NOW! I just got my first piece of blogger hate mail! It just arrived but was from a post I put up back in June. It is an anonymous comment. Come on, anon, at least identify yourself!

Anonymous said...

Hate the mohawk. He looks like a gang member.

July 26, 2008 10:48 AM

Anywho, thanks for the laugh. I think it is hilarious! I know its not my family because we're not allowed to use the word "hate". That's kind of strong for a 3-year-old's hairstyle, isn't it? By the way, hater, you'll be pleased to know that his hair is cut in a nice short 'do now. :) Now the defensive Mama bear wants to come out in me and tell you that is rude to say about my beautiful son and he absolutely does NOT look like a 3yo gang member, he just wanted something fun for summer so I let him. But I won't get defensive. I'll just say if you're going to post rude comments on my blog you have to at least have the guts to identify yourself.

And, by the way, beside using the word "hate", we also do not allow ourselves to be defined by our hair in my family, so no labeling allowed!

Home Improvement Part 3

Some people (mostly just Megan) have been asking to see some pictures of my front room all finished as well as the rest of my floors done.

Side note: if you are interested in reading Meg's blog, she would love to have you, I'm sure. She has recently had to make her blog private, but those of you friends who like to read mine and want to read hers as well, just let me know and she will send you an invite.

Anyway, back to me, me me. Here are a couple of pics of my front room finished. It is hard to get a good photo because it is directly across from the foyer and you can't really back up far enough to get a shot of the whole room. Anyway, this is it for now. My vase of flowers isn't done and I may redo the bookshelf but for now I have other bigger projects to finish. Anywho, you can see the work in progress here. And these are the before and after photos of the room finished:

*note all of the Polly Pockets on the floor. Recently Deedle has taken a stand and refused to play with String Cheese because SC won't let her make up anything. It always goes like this:
SC: Deedle, you say, 'want to come to my house?'
D: Want to come to my house? I'll let you try on my princess dress.
SC: No, you don't say, "I'll let you try on my princess dress", just say what I tell you to say.

So, today SC broke down and I heard her say: "Deedle, want to play with me? We can make a deal that your pollies can say what they want to say and mine will say what they want to say. Okay?" And it was a deal.

We finally had the rest of our floors done, but yet still not done. I need to put down all the quarter round molding still and I need to go down to Home Goods to buy some nice rugs (best place ever to get nice rugs for excellent prices!) Oh, and I am also repainting and trying to talk Chancho into letting me paint our mantle and all of the other lame, white-washed woodwork we have, but that will take some more time, I think. I am so happy that I am healthy and have the energy to do these things that I want to do! It is fun stuff! Anyway, I figured that this little video would be a fun way to show the new flooring. Caribbean Walnut, I love you! Oh yeah, and Deedle and SC, I love you more!

All to Ourselves

My parents had eleven children. We are all now grown and married and have provided them with 60-some grand and great-grandchildren. The majority of us live in the same area still. Family gatherings on my side of the family are always big and crazy. My parents love each of their grandchildren dearly, but due to the sheer numbers, it is often not possible for them to spend tons of time with each child. Luckily to my kids, you wouldn't know that. As with their own children, my parents are so good at making each grandchild feel special. String Cheese knows that she is Grandpa's princess and I think she feels deep down that she is his favorite. My parents have the ability to make everybody feel like that.

After a long, hot day of swimming and since my kids didn't really even know what Pioneer Day was nor that it was a holiday, I thought I would just go about the rest of the evening as usual with nothing special. String Cheese, however, kept begging to call Grandma and invite her over. At age 77, my father still teaches full-time as a University professor and spends his free time writing books. My mother works at the temple and also is very involved in Family History Research. Between their jobs and their family, they are the busiest "senior citizens" you could ever meet (I still never think of them as being old). So, I usually don't let SC pester them too much. After originally saying no, I changed my mind and had her give them a call. To my delight, they were just headed off to dinner at Chuck-a-rama but were willing to come over afterwards.

I ran to the store for fireworks, rootbeer and ice cream (standard Allred family holiday treat). We ended up having a wonderful evening, on the verge of magical to me. First my mom told us a few pioneer stories to help my kids understand why we have this holiday anyway. Next we made rootbeer floats and sat on the still-warm driveway to watch Chancho put on the fireworks display. Afterwards, SC begged Grandma Sharon for another pioneer story. My mother is a fantastic story teller and SC begs her to tell her one whenever she sees her.Loumy and Deedle then attacked Grandpa Gordy, as they had already done when he first came over, to give them carnival rides. When I was a little girl, my Dad would give us "rides". A favorite, that he is doing here, is the "merry-go-round". He sings a little song and makes, "beeboopboop" merry-go-round songs while swing the kids through the air on his arms. Another favorite is "Swing-swong, swing-swong, swinging all the day..." These rides are not like horsey-rides or anything I might be able to do. Rather, my dad is always standing and uses his arms to swing kids around in all kinds of fun ways and he makes up songs to go with each ride. At 77 he still has a fantastic physique. These "rides" are ones that I will never forget and I am so glad that my kids have been able to experience them as well.
All in all, it was just a wonderful night for us and one of my favorite Pioneer Days to date. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for letting us have you all to ourselves!

Water Girl

Today is Pioneer Day for us Utahns (well, it was. I just realized that it is now well into tomorrow rather than still today). Since Chancho did not grow up in Utah and while living here he has always happened to work at places in Utah that also do not recognize that the 24th of July is a holiday, he never really thought this day was anything to get excited about. The train wouldn't run to take him to work but he had to go anyway.

Pioneer Day has always been fun for me and I have many fond memories of it as a child. Fireworks are sold in Utah the whole month long and I think it is even legal to light them all of July.

Anyway, I was in a celebratory mood and decided to take the kids swimming. String Cheese is such a little Water Girl! She is also so very brave in wanting to try things. She is thrilled that she is tall enough to ride on the water slides (she is extra tall so most kids her age still don't get to ride on them). She will try anything when it comes to water, which is quite different from her attitude towards most other things in life. She can now swim well enough that she can jump off of the diving boards (at the pools we go to, a parent can't catch the child and they can't wear a life jacket. they have to be able to swim the length of the pool before they can use the diving boards). So, my little six-year-old had a fantastic time today doing cannon-balls off the low dive and even braving the high dive! I'm very proud of her!
Of course Deedle and Loumy (with friend Cole) had a great time, too. They are also both good swimmers. Loumy has some really crazy natural ability and Deedle has overcome her fears and is progressing very well.