Happy Birthday Elder Moose

Today my brother Brian is celebrating his 19th birthday in the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT.  He entered the MTC last Wednesday to begin his service as a two year missionary in Cancun, Mexico. This hardworking, dedicated brother of mine is going to be a fantastic missionary. I’m proud of him and humbled by his willingness to leave behind his own pursuits to serve the Lord by serving the people of Mexico.

Here is his tie collection, pre-mission.  We’ll see if any of them make it back!

With the busyness of moving I never recorded all of the fun Emily and I had with my family (including Brian) between leaving Kansas and moving our things into our Indiana apartment and moving back to Indiana with Andrew.  The first part of the moving saga can be found here, which is where I will pick up our adventures. Christine started school on Wednesday, August 13, so we tried to cram lots of fun things on Monday and Tuesday.  We got frozen yogurt, painted our nails, decorated Christine’s locker at school, swapped hair straighteners, and went shopping at Target.  After Christine successfully completed the first day of school, we went to Sonic to get drinks. We also snuck outside during Emily’s nap to her 8th grade pictures.

The following Saturday my parents went to Des Moines for a Pittsburg reunion, so Christine, Emily and I made a girls day of it.  Emily and I watched Christine at gymnastics.  We took Emily to a park and she discovered the joy of wood chips.  We went to Old Navy and Walmart to look at clothes, make-up, and hair stuff. During Emily’s nap we watched Full House episodes while eating chocolate milk shakes. This should be the first of many sister days – especially now that both of our brothers are on missions!

We spent A LOT of time packing boxes, moving boxes, sorting through boxes, and moving furniture around my family’s basement. The basement flooded over the summer and they were getting new padding under the carpet and cleaning the carpets so we had to empty the basement.  We used the opportune time to sort through all the possessions I left behind in my bedroom when I went to college.  It took me the full two weeks I was there but that project is done with many bags sent to the landfill and goodwill.

My mom spent lots of time singing songs and reading books to Emily this trip.  Emily loved it (despite what the picture may say) and she still will play their games with her on facetime.

Emily and her grandpa before work.

There was a phenomenal rainstorm this trip with some of the coolest clouds I’ve seen in a long time.

Brian returned home from his summer term at BYU on August 17, so we had four days together.  He kindly offered his finely tuned musical genius skills and notated close to 40 short songs for me (he worked on that project more after I left, he didn’t notate all 40 in four days).  We did a lot of hanging out and talking about his freshly completed college experience and his upcoming mission. He also spent a time playing with Emily.  I’m sad she won’t see him again until she is three.

Happy birthday Elder Moose!