Dear David!

So Miranda came home from her mission a couple weeks early to have some surgery, but I have this great excuse to still write our family history down, since her novio is still on his mission in Paris, France for the next year.  So until May 9, 2019, I'll still write a missionary letter for our blog posts.  =)

Dear David, 

Hey, I bet you didn't realize that I planned on continuing our family letter until next April, did you??  Surprise!

But this week's is a little lame because everyone was sick, so they didn't really go to any of their practices, games, etc. and we didn't go do anything because we were a little in limbo mode waiting to hear if Miranda was coming home.  So!  Here goes:

Carlie doesn't like this piece because it was an art trade on an account that turned out to be a joke, but she still drew it, and it still goes here:

Our friends, the Gee's, are the ones who sold everything and are living on the road around the world, and make a living now in travel journalism.  They post all the time about all the crazy places they are, but this one deserved special attention. They're living on this BOAT now:

We're going to pause right here and appreciate the ferociousness of our little Xena.  I took this calm, cute picture of them one morning.

Sterling hopped up and started playing with her.

But she's so crazy, and always pushes it too far for him.  Case in point:

Let me just zoom in so you can appreciate this cat, the Warrior Princess:

So with Morgan, Halle, Kierste & Connor sick, we limped along this week.  First, we heard that Miranda is coming home for surgery, so we went into preparation mode:  giant sign ordered for the neighborhood, Chloe groomed, her bedroom cleaned out, etc.  But thing after thing, I couldn't believe how many little things went wrong this week.  Hahahahaha!  Here we go. 

I counted money at the end of the Book Fair at school because a bank signer had to be there to tally everything, but on the 3rd day of it, I got a message that Chloe had been picked up by the police, and by the time I called them, they had taken her to the shelter in Lindon 20 min away.  Here are her mug shots from the police FB page:

The last thing we needed was for Chloe to be adopted out 5 days before Miranda came home from her mission!  So I left an inexperienced lady (saint) with all her kids at the bank with the PTA money, and ran down, paid my $75 impound money, got the 3rd degree from them, and now I have a ticket from the police to pay, too.

5 other things went wrong during the week, so by the time the twins were gathering all their stuff to sell for their 5th grade store on Friday, it did not even phase me that Halle broke her toe.  It was kind of just par for the course, so I left her at home, ran my errands, and checked on her later.  It was a weird week, because after a while, I just expected the things to happen.

Friday, Carlie got on the freeway to pick up her prom dress in Salt Lake, but there was an accident that was going to make it impossible for her to get it and be back in time for her "day date" that night, so it didn't surprise me when she called, and I knew it was my new task for the night.  I rearranged the kids, met my friend by the side of the road who took the kids home for me, and ran up to make it in time... 

As I worked on the laundry that evening, I counted the loads - 39.  Hahahahaa!!  I started realizing how early I had to drive Derek to Provo in the morning for his tennis tournament, and the bishop called to tell me that we were cleaning the church building in the morning at 7.  I just smiled.

For her "day date," Carlie went to an improv comedy club:

I was a little numb when Carlie got home at 11 that night, tried on her dress, and IT DIDN'T FIT.  The lady had taken it in too much.  Of course, why not?  I called Carol, and she said she could save us... Thank heavens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But by Saturday, I can't think of things that went wrong - we must have gotten it out of our system.  =)  Derek had his tournament, and did really well:

Connor was still sick and missed his game, Morgan had a bye week, and Halle's toe was still hurt, so Kierste played her game:

Then this beauty was picked up by her handsome date, Andrew.  =)

They were having pictures taken somewhere else by someone else, so we just snapped these really fast while they blew away in the wind:

At dinner at the Garden Restaurant at the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Bldg. in Salt Lake:

And the reflection above them:

The restaurant looks over the temple:

Bam.  Successful night, even without smooches.  Dang it.  

And the memes.  This is us this week:

And some more serious:

Love you!  Good thing we still have a missionary letter to read every week.  Keep up the amazing work you're doing!!  Love, us