It's Here!

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Wesley's mission call came yesterday. (Good ol' USPS didn't let us down!) Mark Farnsworth nailed the mission lottery. His guess was Washington, and yes, Wes is going the the Washington Everett mission. Wesley was my slave labor yesterday, so he was the one to check the mail. And what did he do when he found his call in the mail box? Run in the house and tell his mother? NO! He called his big sister, Amanda. It's okay...I'm way past feeling like I need to be the first to know. (Actually, being married to DoJo pretty much guarantees that I will be the LAST to know anything!) We made Wes wait until most of his siblings and friends could be present for the opening. I thought I took a picture of the event, but in all the excitement, I became technologically challenged. Thanks to Amanda for the video and the pics. Wesley enters the MTC on September 16th. Looking forward to that curbside dropoff. Here are a few more pics of the moment.

Wes and buddies, from left to right: Preston, Kyle, Todd, Wes, Derek, and Ryder.

Mission Update

As previously posted, the stake president (hereafter known only as SP) submitted Wesley's mission papers on Tuesday afternoon. For those of you who haven't had a missionary in awhile, filling out the papers and submitting them is all done electronically nowadays. A cool use of technology! Anywhooo, once submitted, the SP can actually "track" their progress. The SP was more than willing to keep the family in-the-know, so on Tuesday afternoon, the tracking message from Salt Lake said "In progress". By Wednesday, the message read "Ready for assignment". The missionary committee meets on Thursdays. Yesterday while the girls and I were working furiously at transforming a basketball court into reception wonderland, the SP called to say that the tracking message had changed to "Call letter sent." Yeah, I started to freak a little, but Meg was quick to the rescue. She grabbed my face, looked me square in the eye and said, "Mom, focus! We have reception wonderland to finish. You can freak out later." Then she handed me a bolt of tulle and a staple gun and told me to get busy. That Meg! If it weren't for her, I would probably be curled up in the corner of the church kitchen stuffing my face with chocolate cake donuts (yesterday was National Donut Day) while planning ways to hack into the church computer system. No really...I'll be okay. This is a good thing to freak out about. But here's the real rub...the call letter is sent snail-mail! Can't the missionary department just text me and let me know what's going on? I have to wait a week to find out whether my baby will have to take meds for tape worms? All this technology, and we are pinning our future on a 44-cent stamp?! What about Skype or Twitter? Anything but USPS! Ooops, I'm startin' to freak again...sorry.

If you would like to weigh in on the

Where Will Wesley Serve "lottery", let me know and I will put your pin on the map. DoJo is planning a winner's prize, but I say the winner gets bragging rights. Who doesn't just love to say "I KNEW IT!" or "I TOLD YOU SO!"?

Irrigation Day

What do kids love most? Those expensive toys we spend months looking for? NO! They love dirt, water, and fire...not necessarily in that order. I'm happy to the provide dirt and water for my grandkids. Luckily most of them live just around the corner, so when the kiddos really enjoy Grandma's yard a little too much, they can just go home and change clothes. (Desi knows to pack an extra set of duds when they come to Kirtland.) Yesterday was irrigation day, and the grandkids have radar for water, so here's the results:

Liv demonstrates the fine art of drinking from the irrigation pipe. No worries...it's well water.

Bottoms up!

Kourtney, of course, drinks with flare. This is the red-neck version of extending your pinkie when sipping a cup of cocoa.

THEN, the adults had an idea! Baby pool. Nolan stopped at Walmart on his way home (bless his heart...Walmart at 5 pm...now there's a REAL MAN for you!)

Everyone is enjoying the water...

Kinda...

Drew & Liv are a little confused about diving.

"Wow! Would you look at that!"

It's all really fun until someone gets hosed. For Andrew, even the 44oz. Big Gulp was no comfort.
So much for irrigating the grandkids. They'll be back for more next week! I'm the luckiest Grandma in the world.

Where Does My Time Go?

I've been a little busy lately, and just realized that I've not posted anything since the middle of May. I know my peeps must be starved for info, so here's a run-down of what my life has been like since the middle of May:
On the same weekend as Kaitlin's bridal shower (May 2nd),

Wesley went to his senior prom with a friend from St. George, Utah. How he convinced this girl (and her mother!) to drive 7 hours to go out with him is beyond me. Nonetheless, he did. The young lady is Chelsea, daughter of Connie & Dexter Irvin, who once were Kirtland residents. Wes and Chelsea were kindergarden sweethearts, so this was a fitting end to their high school years.

The excitement continued...on May 15th & 16th, Wesley participated at the state track meet. He had injured his shoulder the previous weekend (May 8th & 9th) at the district meet, so we were not sure if he would be able to throw the javelin. After a week of rehab, we woke up to a blustery, cold Saturday morning in Albuquerque...miserable weather for throwing. In previous years, Wes took 5th place as a sophomore and 3rd place as a junior, so he had his sights set on 1st. Had it not been for the injury, he most likely could have taken it. As it turned out, he took second place. DoJo and I were just happy that he could end his high school track career with a good finish.

My 49th birthday was on Monday, May 18th (When did I get so old?), but that wasn't nearly as momentous as was Wesley's high school graduation on the 23rd! I didn't cry, but I felt like it. It seems like just yesterday that Wesley was the sweet little boy you see here with his best bud, Kyle.

And now look at him, a high school graduate with his Grandma Owens on the left and Grandma Whipple on the right.

Wes is just slightly spoiled, but it isn't ALL my fault. He has his "other mothers" to take up where I leave off. Here's the evidence of their adoration:

Perhaps the adoration thing is not quite universal?!

THEN, last weekend, we made the trek to Monticello, Utah for Kaitlin & Reed's wedding. Monticello is a two-hour drive from our house. The Monticello Temple is one of the church's smaller temples, but it is beautiful. Kaitlin and Reed had a beautiful morning for a wedding. Here is how they looked greeting each other on the morning of their wedding day:

And this is how they looked coming out of the temple:

How cute is this couple?! I did not cry until the photo montage of these two kids growing up was shown at the luncheon after the ceremony. Thank goodness it was dark! I'm not sad...no, I'm really happy that she made such a good choice. I'm just a little taken aback that she is grown and married.

As for adoration, well...it depends on the day.

If you are wondering where Jared was in all this, well, he saves his appearances for only the best photos. Yes, he's getting an electric razor for Father's Day!

NOW, we are in the countdown week for the wedding reception. Just to make things interesting, Wesley had his wisdom teeth taken out yesterday. Yes, the wisdom teeth came out in preparation for a mission. Wesley has had his mission papers filled out for weeks, met with the bishop, met with the stake president, and now the teeth. I admit, I've cried a few times. But it is really random what sets me off. The cereal aisle at Walmart, watching him bless the sacrament, watching him eat jello. It's bizarre. Most people think I'm just having some sort of mid-life crisis. No, it's just having both my babies leave home practically simultaneously. The double-whammy for the empty-nest syndrome. DoJo assures me this is all part of the BIG PLAN.

I stayed by his side yesterday, armed with pain killers, ice bags, and jello. My reputation as a nurse isn't a good one, but I enjoyed spending the day with my boy. We watched Marley & Me and Bedtime Stories. (Hooray for Pay-Per-View!) Beware! Marley & Me is emotionally manipulative. I cried, and I don't even like dogs! In the middle of the afternoon, DoJo called to tell me that I had gotten my wish: the MTC is now using curbside dropoff for entering missionaries. I had previously mentioned that I didn't know if I could "handle" the MTC departure experience with Wesley and hoped that he would go foreign and straight to an MTC in a foreign country. This announcement was an answer to my prayers. In addition to telling me about curbside dropoff, DoJo called to let me know that the stake president had submitted Wesley's mission papers. I didn't cry because I had just finished watching Marley & Me and had nothin' left.

So there it is. My life for the past month. Whew! I'm exhausted just reading about it. More to come on transforming the cultural hall into reception wonderland. Just think, tulle, spraypaint, twinkly lights, and cupcakes and you've got the mental picture.