My Parents' Mission Call

My Mom & Dad received their mission call at the end of last week. They have been called to serve in the West Indies Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They leave in November and will serve for 18 months - which means they will probably come home in May 2013.



Dominica - the island where Todd did part of medical school - is located in the West Indies Mission, so I decided to post a few pictures from our time there. Please bear with me as a take a little walk down memory lane. We moved to Dominica when Parker was 6 weeks old and left when he was 18 months old.



The possibility that Mom and Dad might be assigned to live and teach in Dominica has got me thinking about all our Dominican friends and wondering how they are doing now. Like the little neighbor girl in the picture with Parker above - she's 9 years old now... it's hard to imagine!

Here are more Dominican friends at a church pot-luck:



And the baptism of Josephine (woman on the right above):



She was baptized by one of the medical students (our group mission leader) because there were NO MISSIONARIES allowed on the island at the time:



As her visiting teacher in the months following her baptism, I grew to love this beautiful woman - and admire her testimony as one of the FIRST people in her country to join the church:



Another Dominican we helped teach and baptize was a man named Owen. He lived in a tiny village high in the mountains and no transports ran on Sundays, so he got up at 4am and walked for hours to get to church every week.



Here he is on the Sunday that the then mission president came to visit our little group:



We tried to take a group picture each semester. Here are some of them:







Todd was asked to be the group leader second semester. I found a copy of the form he had to submit to the school so that we could hold institute classes on Friday nights:



My parents actually came to visit us while we were there. Ready to go back to this, Mom and Dad?



I have a feeling your Christmas decorations in December will incorporate a few seashells!



The rest of my pics are just to show my sibs (and anyone else who's interested) a little of what island life is like for the locals. For example, Market Day is a BIG deal:







There will be plenty of beautiful sights (like waterfalls and ocean views)...





...but Mom and Dad will also see lots of this:



...people working very hard to make tiny amounts of money - doing whatever they can to get by...



...and living in very humble circumstances. Here are typical buildings in the villages:







Examples of buildings in the neighborhoods in town:





But don't get me started on the weather - I could go on and on! Here's just one example. We decided to photograph a common occurrence: it would be totally rainy one minute and then bright & sunny the next. This picture was taken from our back door (notice the laundry, bottom left, that is getting soaked):



And this picture (also from our back door) was taken LESS than 5 minutes later:



So, Mom & Dad, whether your mission travels take you up winding roads into the jungle...



...or down to the windy coast...



I pray that the Lord will lead you to the pure in heart. I'm really excited for you because I know that there are so many good people waiting for your love and guidance.

First Day of Preschool

Lincoln started preschool today and had a GREAT time. Notice in the picture above that he's got a theme going on with his out-fit: new spider-man shoes, Parker's old spider-man shirt, and (since it was a very drizzly day) his spider-man umbrella. I'm just glad he didn't try to talk me into letting him wear his actual spider-man costume!



Anndra was excited too... for one-on-one time with Mommy.



Lincoln with his classmates (and his sister):





Here's a goofy/happy face from Parker (taken over the weekend):



Lincoln got really excited about a hammering project yesterday and Todd took these cute pics:





Saturday morning Anndra, Lincoln, and I woke up to a beautiful sunrise. Before I could explain to Anndra that Parker and Daddy probably wanted to sleep in, she was banging on their doors yelling, "Orange Sky! Orange Sky!" She wanted so much for them to come out and see it. What a sweetie.

Two quick stories

Anndra said her first spontaneous & sincere "Thank you" today. She says it all the time, but usually after being prompted or after receiving a treat or something. It's not as much about genuine gratitude as it is about knowing that's what she's supposed to say.

This morning she got her little fingers caught in the VCR. She's usually really good about leaving that type of equipment alone, but I think she was trying to see if there was a video inside. She called out: "Mom, I stuck!" So I came over and pushed the little door up so she could pull her fingers out.

She looked at me with this expression in her eyes like I had just saved her life. She threw her arms around me and murmured a very enthusiastic "Thank you!" It completely melted me. Not because she said thank you without being prompted - she's done that several times before just out of habit - but because she was truly glad I helped her and wanted to express it.

A moment to remember.

***********

Lincoln sits on the back of my bike when I ride with Parker and our neighbors to school each morning. Today I wore pants with no pockets so I asked Lincoln to hold the garage door opener until we got back home. I told him he must hold onto it tightly so that it wouldn't fall and must not push the buttons until I said he could (talk about a test of self-control for a 3-year-old, right?). He did a great job and I think he enjoyed the sense of responsibility.

Then this afternoon my neighbor (who usually rides her bike to the school to pick up the kids) called to say she had to work late. So I grabbed the garage door opener and hurried to lift Lincoln up into his seat. In all this rushing about, the opener slipped from my grasp and fell to the ground.

As I struggled with Lincoln's buckles, I heard him say in a very serious voice: "Uh oh, Mom. You dropped the clicker. That means you are in BIG trouble!" It made me laugh so hard inside that he could assume that I would 'get in trouble' for something like that! I had to resist uttering a flippant remark like "Oh really... what do you think is going to happen to me?"

Life with young children is never boring.

End-of-summer Joys

Parker's first day of 3rd grade came and went with relative ease. It felt a little strange to have only two children at home with me the first day or two, but we've all adjusted quickly. Lincoln and Anndra certainly have school envy (notice the backpacks they've insisted on wearing while pretending to be big kids who go to school like Parker)...



...but at least they have each other. They are always coming up with the cutest creative games together. It is so fun to be their mom!



Another happiness is having friends who left for the summer return! We're awfully glad to have this little princess close by again - to hang out with our jaguar and cowgirl Minnie Mouse.



We are potty-training Anndra and she is doing REALLY well! We are at the stage where she wears underwear whenever we're at home and only puts a diaper on when she goes to sleep or leaves the house. I can't believe how much she's grown up this summer.



Speaking of growing, her hair is getting long! We can almost get it all into a ponytail at the back of her head. She hates when I touch her hair, but I'm hoping she'll grow out of that phase before long.

Baby Girl thinks she can jump rope

But she'll only do it if we take turns...

This week

At long last... front teeth for P

But getting him to show his teeth in a smile is tricky - I got him to laugh and took this pic:



Anndra is learning to spell a little bit and it was at about this age when Lincoln got his name puzzle, so yesterday her own puzzle arrived and she was in heaven (because she's always coveted his):



And since Parker didn't want to be left out, we ordered one for him too:



He grabbed the camera and started doing a little photo shoot with his letters. My favorite one was this pic that he took with the camera upside down so that it would look like his name was hanging from the 'ceiling' - so clever!



Another thing Parker has been interested in lately is creating his own recipes for smoothies. If you ask him about it, he'll only tell you 2 or 3 of the ingredients because the rest are secret. But don't worry, he won't forget them - he records each recipe in his journal:



Anndra has gotten so FAST at climbing up to get a hold of things she's interested in. For example, I fixed myself an english muffin with pb&j and set it on the table. I stepped away for three seconds to grab my glass of milk and turned around to see my stealthy one-year-old doing this:



Is it just me, or does it seem like there is some kind of magnetism between sticky things and little kids' fingers? They always find each other!



The last thing to share in this first August post is from a morning this week when Todd went to work late (stayed home because he knew he was going to have to work all evening). While I slept (mmm, morning sleep - so delicious!), he got the kids involved in a superhero game:



It was so fun to wake up to Anndra running around the house yelling: MAT-Man! MAT-Man! (side note: her other newest word is band-aid, which she says "mand-ay").



Lincoln wore his spiderman suit the rest of the day and wanted to sleep in it that night.



I love how dress-up is a game that kids of MANY ages can enjoy (let's face it - even grow-ups enjoy it sometimes)... too bad they didn't get Todd to put on a cape or something and do more than just be the camera-man. :)