What the juice box?

{For 18 months – Jan ’17 to Jul ’18 – I'm posting our letter to Miranda while she's on her mission to Cochabamba, Bolivia.  Our letter titles are taken from a list of family sayings & catchphrases we recorded onto a pillowcase she has with her.  You can read her adventures on her mission blog: www.hermanamadsen.blogspot.com!}

The reason for the subject heading... This morning Carlie was getting ready for church, and she realized she was surrounded by maggots.  Yes you read that right.  We had brought a trash can down to the basement, but the BBQ trash was still in it, which had sat outside for a while after the BBQ... today it erupted, and they were already crawling all through the basement, around the couches, etc.  It looked like someone had spilled rice all over... live, squirming, fat rice.  EW.  

Ok.  Here's our news & photo dump.  We took this for you:

And this:

Finally got these 2 beauties from girls' camp:

And I forgot to tell you that for a while now, whenever the twins have to be separated in church on either side of the bench, there is a constant flow of notes "To Halle" and then "To Kierste" going down the row of us, the entire meeting.  They miss each other so much while they are 8 feet away.  =)

So for the last throws of being together with Jodie, Katie met the family up the canyon for a cookout:

Dennis & Paul got dropped off on one of their bread delivery days to spend the day with us:

Dad fixed the bikes, so Halle & Kierste (& Derek & Connor) have been constantly wanting to ride everywhere.

Grandma's addition is coming along:

Cement getting poured for the footings:

And our garden is coming along too!  Can you even see all the plants through the "other plants" we're growing?

But when we cleared around some of them, we found a huge green zucchini and some yellow zucchini.  You know this is big for us.  Thanks for being there for the trial runs and misses.  We're doing another one of those years, I'm afraid.  We've got to clear the weeds or they're going to choke out the real plants, just like all the Youth Conference and EFY talks.

K, besides memes, that's all the pictures and news we have.  We worked on our family crest and coat of arms tonight.  We decided to have a cougar for one of the animals on the side, possibly a Zeus on the other side, some background pattern of waves for cruises & Lake Powell, some background pattern of mountains for where we live, some symbols for music and humor and spiritual strength.  And somewhere in there, we have to work in a rebel alliance symbol, or it's not actually our family's coat of arms.  The banner over the top will read "Audacter ire" which is Latin for Boldly Go (or Audaciously Go =)

We love you and pray for you millions of times a day. =)  You're the best and we're so proud of you.  Please don't be sad about all these pictures.  I really think it will help to not be shocked at all the changes if you see it happening along the way, so I'm still going to send you all our happenings and visuals.  We do everything as if you're here with us, and we'll do anything and everything you want when you get back here.  We absolutely love that you're in Bolivia, and a huge slice of our family is missing while you're gone.  But what you're doing is changing and shaping your life forever, and will hugely influence your children & your own family life later.  I'm so jealous and happy for you!!!!  Love, Your mama who has you in her heart.  SO PROUD.

And now, the so-so memes of the week:

Didn't make it in the letter:

It's not often that you get a really good picture of a cat, but when someone posted that their gray cat was missing and had kind of a terrible picture of it, I decided to grab one of Sterling to see if I could get a good one.  He's such a darling.  Really the best pet in the house because he takes care of himself, doesn't need to be bathed, needs very little attention, uses the facilities IN THE WEEDS outside the yard, still affectionate, loves us.  And his eyes are so beautiful!!!