50 First Dates

 

Another eventful day. I felt like I didn’t get as much sleep last night as the ones before but Sierra rested well. Tonight we have our favorite night tech, Liz, back and I think I will sleep well.  I trust her and feel comfortable with her. Today our tech was Trevor’s sister!! What a small world. Trevor is Tanner’s best friend. We spent a lot of time talking about him today. I have loved all the staff (except one- last nights tech, who was okay but not awesome and it felt weird having her here with us.) They have just been so kind and caring. I am very grateful for that amazing blessing.

Si had hyperbarics in the morning and then she was supposed to go in for her surgery right after. Instead she finally went at 4pm. I did leave to take a shower real quick and spent a little time with Rob. 

Surgery went great. They found that a lot more of her tissue was fine then they had feared (I’ve lost track of what number miracle this is). So they cleaned out the necrotic areas, applied the shark collagen, and now she heals for a few weeks and then she will have the skin graft.

When I got back from showering I learned that she had been in a lot of pain and was upset. 

Ten minutes later the meds kicked in and she was cheerful and ready to take on the world. She did a speedy lap around the ward and impressed the heck out of everyone.

Cognition is very up and down. I see improvements every day but it definitely changes minute by minute. This morning I got a good  pinch for being so annoying and this evening she told Liz and Katie that I was her best friend. She meant both. I am fine. I am just delighted that she’s here and getting better. Up and down is hard but we can do hard things!

Tatum got sick a couple days ago so we haven’t been able to swap. (Did I already say that?...who needs the dive chamber?)

It’s been fine. I don’t mind the hospital. I do wish I could spend some time with Hannah before she goes back to Idaho. 

Sierra was having us cracking up tonight. She ate well, got her bath, and then the four of us were around her bed (Sierra in it of course) and we were just laughing as she told us about work, her hair, meeting Chris and how he’s going to propose and how she loves him and lots of other stuff. It was a bright spot.

She doesn’t remember the accident and we have to tell her about it, and tell her she has broken arms, and tell her not to pull out her feeding tube every 5 minutes, etc, I just sing in my head 🎶forgetful Lucy, she’s got a cute caboosee🎵.

Love that Sierra girl! 

Other things

 Rob has been spending a lot of time with the family and  the grands. They are adorable!

We got some great pictures of our missionary!

Forgetting

 I want to write down what has happened so we can remember it, as we go. But sadly I am busy busy and don’t remember but here’s some of it.

“I am learning a lot of cool things about how the body works and how amazing medicine is. Sierra goes to the hyperbaric chamber (the dive chamber for those in the know 😉) twice a day. It’s really cool and helps with soft tissue and bone healing. Inside it’s 100% oxygen and the pressure you would find 20-30 ft under water. 

Also did you know they use shark collagen to help in tissue regeneration? Some of the skin and tissue around her wound is necrotic so she will have plastic surgery in a couple of days. They will use the shark collagen then. 

Pretty amazing!

Sierra is doing well, considering. Her bones are set and healing. Her lungs and organs are doing well. She is moving around and doing PT. 

She talks and makes sense sometimes. She is confused and scared and uncooperative other times. All of this is normal and part of the expected recovery process with TBIs. 

It’s hard, super hard, but we have great hope that she will continue to recover and that she will be well. I will tell her about the great outpouring of love and support she has, and I will tell her of the miracles she experienced while she was getting better.”

From my FB

“She does not do well at night. She’s been cussing & swearing. She punched (twice)the sitter and tried to bite her. She’s kicked us and yelled. Finally we had to restrain her and she settled right down. By that time she had been given 5-6 different meds but each just made the situation worse.”

From a text to my sibs

Every day we have PT, OT, Speech, trips to the dive chamber, eating, baths, phone calls to answer, idk what else. 

The last two nights have been awful. Watching her get restrained was heartbreaking. Tonight it seems like our new game plan is going well and so far she’s sleeping peacefully.  

Update: first thank you all so much for the kind words, the prayers and positive thoughts. We have been  blessed by so so many people reaching out, bringing food, tending babies, driving kids, sending positive messages, offers of help and love and support. It has been such a tender time and I, and my whole family, are so so grateful.

“I know everyone wants an update on Sierra. She continues to rest and to heal. We have had some really bad nights but the days are better. She follows commands, recognizes people and expresses her emotions. These are all wonderful signs. I was told by one doctor to temper my enthusiasm however I believe in miracles, I believe in the power of prayer, I know Sierra was protected because no one thinks she should have lived. This girl is a fighter and I am so grateful for her. 

Tomorrow she has another surgery, more therapies and she’ll be one day closer to getting out of here!”

Copied from FB

People have been so kind and so generous. Lana came by and brought me this quilt she made that I love! Andrea got us minky blankets! People have been bribing food every night for the family. They’ve started different fundraisers and a go fund me and they’ve been so amazingly kind!

Is it Tuesday?

 

Each minute is such a roller coaster ride and it’s crazy the depths of worry and fear that come with bad news, and the elation that comes with the tiniest improvement. It’s cray-Z!

So late last night we got the results of her MRI. They found spots on her frontal lobe that suggest shear trauma. My heart sank. They talked about personality changes and long term care facilities. It felt very grim. 

Then this morning they said they thought her organs were pushing thru her diaphragm into her chest cavity. Plus she was pretty unresponsive and uncommunicative.

We prayed hard and asked for others to join us in praying. She went for a CT of her chest to learn what was going on with her organs and got the good news that it was fine. There are pockets of fluid around her spleen and liver that will take care of themselves and that were making the muscle look compromised when it wasn’t.   Miracle!

She went for her tube surgery and that went great. Collapsed lung is working just fine as well so now she can go to the hyperbaric chamber.

Then this afternoon she started talking.  A lot. She passed her swallow test. She participated in PT and OT. She’s been in a great mood. She doesn’t recognize me or Dani but tells about her life with good details. She was cracking us up. Miracle 7-22!!

So she’s not out of the woods and we can’t be certain but I really feel like she will continue to improve. 

Time slows down

It’s the weirdest thing, it feels like it’s been so long since we’ve come to Utah to be with Sierra but really it’s only been 2 days, 3 since the accident. Saturday night I stayed here and Dani went home. She came back in the morning. Saturday Mark snuck up to be with her for a minute and Rob and Chris came up to give her a blessing. I slept at home Saturday night and Dani stayed here. Today we are swapping. 

She’s had some good news and bad news in these last couple of days that have felt like months. She had a collapsed lung, that is not inflated and she can have her chest tube removed. They are not going to remove it because it’s good to have it in when you are in the hyperbaric chamber, which she will go in tomorrow. She’s had a lot of CT scans and the bleeding in her brain is now gone. She had an MRI today, still no results. She’s not as responsive as we’d like (meaning she doesn’t know her name, or who I am, or anything) we are hoping and praying it’s from the meds and the concussion and that she will recover. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

She’s had two surgeries on her arms. They went well. She will need plastic surgery on her right arm because it was severely damaged. The bones literally folded in half and her soft tissues and skin were deprived of blood. 

She is in a lot of pain or she is totally drugged up.

She failed her swallow test so they are putting in a feeding tube (I had to leave the room). Once that’s in they can give her oral meds which will provide steady pain relief and we hope will let her have some more clarity. They are doing that while I’m writing and I can hear her cries from down the hall. 

Her chest X-rays are looking good. Her liver enzymes are better. She’s moving her legs and arms and fingers and toes. 

We feel the presence of angels and have faith that she will be healed. We (I) also need a little divine help to maintain that faith.

This morning we went and had breakfast with Ethan and his companion. The MP called Rob and invited us to do that . He said he felt inspired that it would be good for him. He is doing so great! He was anxious for breakfast to be done and to get back to work. It was great to see him. 

Grandpa is getting to spend some nice time with the grands!

Ethan and Elder Burns.

The one without a title

 Friday evening we were at Action Gator taking little blue for an oil change and a steering wheel adjustment when we ran in to Jack and Laurie. Jack said hey come over and we can take the jet skis out. So we did. Sage and Grace had fun. We all had fun and ended up staying and eating together. 

Thousands of miles away at the exact same time Sierra and Chris were in an accident. Val called me and it was de ja vu. 10 months ago, same time of night, same panicked called, different well loved young adult family member, same anguish and shock. 

They were driving to a camping trip, Chris was pulling a trailer and somehow whether it was a gust of wind or whatever happened the trailer jackknifed and separated from the truck. The truck flipped down the embankment and Sierra  was ejected from the truck.

Do you believe in miracles?

I sure do. Sierra has horrible injuries, but she’s alive and it looks like she will recover. She broke both her arms, her right arm very severely and she had surgery on it last night. They were able to restore blood flow and she can move all her fingers and toes. She broke her clavicle, her scapula, and many ribs. She has a leak in her lung that is closing on her own, a brain injury that at first looked like it might be devastating but now the doctors think she will recover from. 

Driving on the freeway behind them was a firefighter and a nurse. They stopped to help and saved her life. She had coded but with CPR they kept her heart pumping and oxygen going to her brain.

So we got the call and knelt to pray. Then we got things rolling. We cleaned the house, did laundry packed, made flights, got Grace situated, waited for morning and flew out to Utah at the crack of dawn. Again. 

Dani spent the night with Si last night. I’m staying tonight. We will be trading off.  She will have a second surgery tomorrow. 

The nurses here are amazing. I am very grateful for all the help and care she’s gotten, from angels earthly and heavenly. 

So she’s awake a little bit every now and then. This evening she’s had some confusion but that could be from the meds. She has a little fever and looks pretty bad. From a mom point of view it seems awful, from a trauma nurse POV it seems to be going great, at least that’s what they are telling us. 

So now we wait and pray and do what we can to make sure she gets better.

Ducks (in a row and otherwise)

 

We were going to do some gardening for YW but it rained hard all day so I had to come up with a last minute something. Pinterest to the rescue. Sort of. I had already planned a “women in the scriptures” night for next month. My problem is there are way more women I’d like to highlight and share lessons from their lives than we could do in one night...or 50 nights. So this was the perfect opportunity to throw in another lady. I chose Hagar and found a great lesson on her. We talked about her life and how even when it seemed bleak,at best (she was alone, pregnant, and in the middle of the wilderness), God still saw her. He sees us, always, no matter how awful and alone things feel. We talked about that and then the girls made a painting to take home. I think it was really fun. We didn’t have a lot of girls there but those who came enjoyed it.

Yesterday we had a mother duck with a broken leg on campus. She had 8 ducklings. They got separated and mom disappeared in the rain. Today the now abandoned babies (I guess, I wonder if there had been a little less helpful intervention if mom may have been able to stay near the babies, but you know what they say about the best of intentions) were adopted by a family who has a little farm and has “always wanted to raise ducks”.   Before they left Bianca and I went over and take a peek. They were really, really cute.

Yesterday Grace got her Covid shot. She also went to the Ophtalmologist. Her brain and eyes are fine. We have been thru all the “ologists” that are even tangentially related to her symptoms that there are. Besides EDS and fibromyalgia there is “nothing wrong” and “not much that can be done”. So good news: no brain tumor or heart problems. Bad news she just gets to live with her symptoms because there is no fix. Next up, counseling to learn how to live with chronic pain. She’s got Lincoln who helps, and she’s tough, but it stinks.

Today after school Grace went swimming at Letties.

Yesterday was the first night of new marcher camp. Since Lu is now a section leader she gets to go to even more band things. She got to drive herself. So that was huge. She did fine and just like that all my ducklings she is now able to drive herself anywhere she needs to go. She’s well on the road to independence. 

30 years

Chris and Sierra 💕

I’m 30 years post cancer. What?? How crazy is that? I hardly think about it but every now and then it pops into my head. I few weeks ago I realized that this big day was coming up. It was also my birthday 53.  Comes around every year.  It was a good day.  I had lots of phone calls and facebook birthday wishes.  

 Saturday night Grace and a bunch of her friends went to Myles' birthday party.  I drove a full car load of girls down there.  The traffic was crazy.  They went to Wonder Works on I-drive.  When I was dropping them off our car was surrounded by 50 motorcycles whizzing down the road, doing wheelies and acting crazy.  I-drive was so crowded.  Grace had a good time.  They had pizza and watched a magic show and hung out together.  Myles is new to our ward, he was baptized just a month ago.  I don't think he knows a lot of people so it was super nice of the girls to go.  I think there were about 10 kids from the ward there.

After I dropped her off Rob and I went for birthday molten chocolate cake at Chili's.  He also bought me a beautiful australian opal bracelet.

Yesterday was an unusually busy meeting day.  We had ward council.  We used to have it only every other week (which I loved) but now we meet every week.  Then Grace and I went to pick up Avory who was going to meet with the missionaries.  She sat in.  We went to sacrament meeting, and then we went to Sunday school on zoom.  In the evening we had a camp meeting, Grace is a YCL this year, and finally we had a fireside.  It was a lot of meetings, it felt like old times.  We have gotten used to having a lot of free time on Sundays though so it was odd.

At 10 pm I heard Grace run down the stairs and then back up.  The Evans had baked me a cake! How sweet is that.  In the afternoon Rob and Grace played games with me.  I love games, they don't so that was nice.  We played Cat Crimes and Phase 10.  

 

news

 

First off these little cuties, who we were told were fraternal twins in utero, and who look just alike, got their DNA results back and they are identical! Not that it matters but it's fun to know! They are the sweetest baby girls and hard to tell apart so I wasn't surprised.

This little pumpkin is a licensed driver now.  What?? How did that happen.  One more step toward independence. 

Air ship seems to be moving along.  Which is exciting and scary at the same time.

The Chosen released episodes 2 & 3. I love that show.  I love how relatable the apostles are. Watching this helps makes sense in my mind that they didn't "get it" while Jesus was with them. That's something I that I have thought about a lot.  I love Peter because of his mistakes and the hope it gives me that I can make mistakes and still be useful, but still I would shake my head and think how did they not see? Following Jesus changes us, but not all at once.  It takes a lifetime of following and believing and repenting.   Most of the time the changing, the refining, the "perfecting" is so small, just line upon line really, that we don't notice.  It isn't until later that we can look back and see the progress.  I know this but I didn't apply it to them. Ah ha.  Thank goodness He is perfect since the rest of us aren't!

Monday

 

Nikoli, Grace's clarinet teacher, is the principle clarinet for the orlando philharmonic orchestra.  Or course with covid everything has been weird but they found a way around the problem...parking lot concerts.  He gave Grace two tickets to go hear them play! So we went. It was pretty fun.  It was nice sitting outside, especailly once the sun went down.  We watched the stars come out while the music played.  I always love to watch the conductors.  This one was very animated and I could see him from the front as well since it was in the parking lot you could see him in the glass fronts of the building.  They did play one piece that I didn't like.  It was an orginal compostion by someone I am pretty sure will never be famous.  It was atrocious.  

In other music news Grace is the new clarinet section leader! And Lettie made drum major!

The senior Crawleys are in Idaho visiting Ezra.  Their hotel has a pool so he got to try swimming for the first time.  Hannah said he loved it! Cute baby!

All the livestock in Utah is doing well💖

Yesterday it rained.  A lot.  Liked poured! We got soaked leaving chruch.

Bonus picture of Cora with her Cora Cooks book! I sent them books last week, a Cora book and a Ruby book.  Jenna told me that they had a lot of Ruby books but that was the first Cora one so I searched for a second one and she just got it!

Ethan writes great missionary letters.  I love each monday reading them.  I am going to put them all together at the end of the mission for him but I'm going to share this weeks letter here:

"This is going to be a long email so here are some sparknotes: 

A lady from the Spanish ward hemmed my pants this week so I had to learn some sewing vocab. I've adopted a new attitude of finding the good and focusing on that. We had a really good Sunday stake conference. A very cute and funny lesson with a little girl we are teaching English to. And someone who served his mission in Orlando as I left for here took us out to lunch, and some English members raced to get us food.

So the hem in one my pairs of pants fell out and I have been just taping it on the inside for a while to fix it. But I found out a lady in our ward Hna Fonseca has offered to sew for missionaries. So I asked her to sew a dobladillo in my pants and she said yes and then came through clutch.

I felt a bit discouraged that despite how hard we have been working, and how much I feel I have been growing personally, we hadn't seen much success with actually bringing others to baptism. I realize that this is a bit foolish, because all the good we do is at least planting seeds for future goodness, and the scriptures say to not be weary of doing good, but it was still frustrating. I had a lack of confidence in my teaching ability really. Especially in Spanish. But then maybe I heard a talk or read something, I can't remember. Basically the way I'd sum it up into what I'm trying to do is just find the good and focus on that. Another thing that helped is a book someone sent me. I read it this week and it talks about how aligning your will with God's is the surest way to find happiness. This can be difficult but the good thing is God I'd there to help us do this. If we come to him with a desire he will help make that change in our heart.

I feel like every transfer in my mission there has been something to learn each and every time over the 6 weeks. The first transfer was charity. Having a love for the people. The last transfer was definitely pacience and humility to. This transfer I feel like I have been learning to hope. Sort of like how I said earlier. 

And that hope was rewarded this week when a family moved in from Venezuela and like 6 of them want to be baptized! Whats very I interesting about this is that they were all ready to be baptized when we found them. Never in my mission have we found someone that isn't ready, or has the desire, and been able to bring them to a desire. It is always they come with that want. Really it is humbling to see our role in conversion compared to the spirit's. We just really help them along the path the holy ghost is already taking them on. 

One very fun experience this week is when we were teaching Mia English. Mia is maybe 8 years old and we really just do her homework. One section of the work was a little story about penguins that she had to answer some questions for. One part talked about how father penguins have to stay with the egg for 2 months and in that time they don't leave to eat or do anything, just living off their body fat so that the baby stays warm. We asked Mia why the papa penguin can't eat for 2 months. She didn't know at first but thought about it for a minute then confidently said (translated) "the papa has to fast for the babies health for those 2 months and that's why he doesn't eat anything" it was super sweet.

Elder Pihl who served in the ward in Florida left for home in Salt Lake a week before I came out here. This week he took me and elder Burns out for lunch. It was really fun and cool to see him as well as the role reversal. Usually it was me waiting in the car for him and his comp to come get food, but that flipped around here.

On Sunday, we hsd stake conference. Elder Kevin J. Worthen, an area 70 spoke. His talk was super awesome and talked about how the book of mormón is a book about families. If we read it from that perspective we can get so many lessons out of it. Anotber thing be spoke on was how the atonement is for everyone. He mentioned a scripture in Psalms 139:7-8. This says "7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?

8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there" what's cool is the scriptures says the spirit is with all of us wherever. If we are doing all the right things living as righteously as we can, he's there. If we are maybe not doing so hot, he is still reaching out for what the second we look for Him."

1. Me and Pihl 

2. The hemming ladies food storage of bleach bottles 

Saturday

Today we slept in until 8. We got up and did chores. Laundry, bathrooms, grocery store. The usual.

Grace had a clarinet master class followed by a clarinet lesson. 

I had planned a fun date for Rob and I. I booked us a couples massage and it was super nice . We both loved it. 

Phase 2 of the date was supposed to be a taste of the 7 seas at Sea World and a visit to our friends the killer whales. Grace also had plans, she and Garrett and Katie were going on a picnic.   Out of no where a big windy, rain event popped up and changed everyone’s plans. Grace went to Wendy’s. We went to Bahama Breeze. 

Yesterday we got to drive a lot. I drove Grace home. Then we drove the flex and the Hyundai to the dmw. Then we both hopped in the flex and drove to the car shop where his new truck was finally getting it’s new leather seats. Then we took the flex and the truck home, got back in the truck and drove back to the dmv to pick up blue. Finally we drove blue and the truck home. Good times! Now we have our cars registered and our leather situation worked out so it’s all good.

Friday

The kids had spring break this week. They went to Moab for a couple of days.  Everyone loved it.  Marshall loved climbing all over!

Grace had leadership camp for band all week.  They started right after school and went until 6pm.  She was tired and hurting after.  Good thing she has that big brown heating pad to comfort her.  They find out this weekend was offices they will have next year. 

Elder Pihl found Ethan and took him and his companion out to lunch, then he sent me this picture! yeah!!

Last night we had a service project scheduled for the youth.  We were going to go to a food bank and box up food.  The project was from 5-10.  We told them we'd come at 7.  Before we even left we got a call that the work was done.  So bummed!

I got the call just before it was time to meet so we still went to the church to tell everyone.  The youth wanted to hang out together still so we played volleyball in the gym for an hour.  Lilly and I had the same mask on!

Rob sold a kayak online! He bought it for $400 and sold it for $700! This is crazy.  Usually we "like to" buy high sell low, so this was a nice change of pace. ;)

Sawyer got a new job! and Hannah has one class left for her BA!! and Ezra is adorable:)

Sierra and Chris are going strong.  I am hoping for an announcement soon💗

 These little chickens continue to be the cutest!

And we are caught up!

random thoughts on an easter/ conference weekend

 

We got our first picture text from a stranger. Ethan and his companion dying eggs!  It was so fun to see him.  I am so proud of him and what good work he is doing.  I couldn't help but think about my brother Michael when he was on his mission.  It was a long time ago and I don't really remember getting lots of pictures or hearing from him a lot.  I wrote to him every week and when he came home it was such a fun family weekend.  We were all there and we were so excited to see him and to hear all his mission stories.  He was an amazing missionary.  We sat around the piano and sang together for hours, we took silly pictures, we listened to him tell story after story. It was really fun.

Sadly his life has taken such a turn for the worse.  It was slow...for a long time he was doing well, and honestly we have never lived near each other as adults or spent a lot of time chatting, so I was not witness to the day to day. Basically I would see him at family gatherings when we went to Utah.  He flew out to TX once, when Hannah was born, we visited him in NC once when he was doing summer sales, other than that it was when we were meeting at mom's house, so I don't know how it happened, but slowly I knew it was happening.  He stopped keeping the commandments and living by the covenants he made.  He was a successful entrepreneur but lived a party life style.  Eventually he married JaNee and they started their family.  Things seemed to be better for awhile.  They were loving parents, went to the temple, had two sweet kids. It didn't last though and Michael spiraled down a sad rabbit hole.  He stopped working regular jobs and got into growing and "selling" CBD products.  I'm not sure he actually sold any.  I won't go into specifics, out of respect for my mom's wishes, but things have been bad.  He is now getting divorced and barely gets to see the kids (which I think we all feel is for the best) JaNee is working and taking care of them. Mom and Dad sold their house and are living with Em while they are building a new one in a retirement community (basically to get away from him). He asks everyone for money.  Several of the siblings have had to block his number, including me now, not because we don't want to be asked but because when we say no he goes nuts.  It is the saddest thing and I don't know what to do.  I wish I could help, I wish things were different, I feel guilty that I don't /can't/won't help. I also was selfishly mad because the big blow up between he and I happened during conference weekend and so distracted me from my favorite weekend of the year. Mostly though I am sad that things are awful and I'm at a loss and he feels lost.  It's been a problem for 2 decades, just at varying degrees of seriousness so it's not a shock or surprise, just sad. And what do we do?

This is also Easter weekend. 

 Yesterday Grace went to celebrate Kaylynn's birthday all day.  They went to a smash room and to OG and to her house.  They had a great time . I am also mad yesterday because Kaylynn's family is the one who took Ziva.  I told her at the time that she went there that if they ever wanted to give her away not to and we would take her back. Then after she actually went there I was regretting it and told her if she wanted to give her back I'd want her back.  Then last week she asked me if it was okay to give Z to their neighbor who has little kids because she thought Z would be happier.  I said no, if you don't want her we want her back. Yesterday I found out they did give her to the neighbor. I felt betrayed and mad. I don't want Z being passed around, it was super frustrating.  

Tatum is graduating from elementary school.  What?? She's such a darling girl.  This morning I chatted with them.  They told me all about the jeep adventures in the desert! Also they got bunnies for easter that are the cutest little things! Marshall can do a flip on the trampoline. Did I report that Dani is finally living her dream and sold the minivan and got a jeep.  She's always wanted one!

We had book club on Friday.  Everyone hated the book.  It was still fun to talk to everyone. Tori sent me a mezuzah as thanks for their visit.  Now I have a little corner of Israel in my own house! The top picture is my Christmas present from Hannah, and the Shalom plaque is from Bethlehem.  

This cute boy had his first easter egg hunt.  They hid one raisin in each plastic egg.  So fun! I watched his video like 10 times getting his little egg.

We are down to one little Easter basket now. Our Easter was quiet.  We talked to Nana this morning.  She is looking good and recovering from her surgery.

Yesterday we had four missionaries over for dinner.  Rob made brisket and jalapeño stuffed chicken.  He cooks more meat now that he has the smoker than he had before.  I made baked beans, green fluff, broccoli, corn bread, deviled eggs and served ice cream for dessert.  It was fun to visit with them.  While Elder Smith was eating the green fluff he was saying he'd never had it before.  We were shocked as it's a pot luck staple.  His companion ratted him out and told us he was a convert.  He's only been a member for less than two years. Of course we made him tell us the story.  His parents are jewish, he went to synagogue but only socially. In high school his friend invited him to run cross country, which he did and he because great friends with the other kids on the team who were mostly members of the church.  Their senior year his girl friend, a member of the team and the church, invited him to church.  He went and thought it was kind of nuts (fast and testimony meeting) until the last testimony (the bishop) who was powerful and really touched him.  He asked a friend to get him a BOM on the down low and read it and referred himself to the missionaries.  He got baptized and went off to college where he remained active and loved going to institute.  At some point he felt impressed that the Lord wanted him to serve a mission so he applied and got his call to Portugal.  Then he had to go to his parents and tell them that he was going to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for two years in a foreign country.  They were shocked and asked him why.  He then told them that he was baptized (a year ago) and knew the church was true.  He said they've been supportive.  Anyway, that was a fun story and he is a cute missionary.

My Saturday conf watching buddies

Grace has been coughing and I have had a stuffy nose.  We are both fine, it's probably allergies. 

Our cute Easter table. I wish we lived close to family but that’s not our season.

The Brandt’s got bunnies! How cute is that?

I loved general conference. Even having missed some focus during some talks I still felt the spirit and have such love for the Savior. He suffered for all this mess, and all the things that are hard, and all our sins. How did he do that? I don’t know how but I know why...he loves us. It’s the only reason there is to be willingly to pay such an infinite cost.