Soy un hijo de Dios

Be prepared.. this story is both sad AND pathetic.
On Saturday, I went to Missionary Emporium. I needed to pick up some "flags" for the cool little flag stand that Alex has all of his friends state and country flags in. 7 of his 10 friends have their calls so this is our little way of paying tribute and remembering where they are.

Anway - I went into the store, sort of browsed through some Christmas books and then was walking toward the "flag section" of the store, when a plaque caught my eye. This was a painted wooden plaque with vinyl lettering on it. The lettering said "Soy un Hijo de Dios". I, of course, had no idea what it said, but earlier in the day - I rememberd that I had seen the word Hijo and I thought I remembered it meant "son" or something. So I walked up to the clerk at the store and pointed at it and said "what does that say?" She looked at it and said "it says I am a Child of God". In my head I was like "oh my gosh, oh my gosh, here come the tears" but my mouth just said "ok thanks" and I walked away. By the time I turned around I was bawling - you know - the type of tears that just pour and get your shirt and coat all wet in like 30 seconds!

I walked toward the back of the store without making direct eye contact with anything in the store, for fear of making it worse. Which, was a bad idea - the entire back of the store is where the keep all the mission stuff - the "Mexico Flags", "Mexico Shirts", "Mexico Key Chains", "Mexico tie tacks", the Spanish Hymnal... well you get my point.

I basically went running out of the store - crying for my big sister - I called her when I got to the car, and we agreed that me going into those stores unsupervised for the next 6 months is probably not a good idea!

Kenyon gave me a big hug (and condolences) when I got home and when Alex came home 1/2 hour later -he was none the wiser! I'm so brave!

Billy the Kid

Kenyon, Alex and I went to the Billy Joel concert on Thursday, November 29th. It was so good! Alex got a ticket to the concert for his birthday, so his seats were on the floor, but we didn't get tickets in time to go - but luckily, the day of the show, Kenyon got an e-mail from someone on his Porcurpine Cycling team asking if anyone was interested in the tickets. The guy that bought them had to work that night, and he was selling them buy one, get one free! Our seats were great!

The first hour of the concert, he played some of his more obscure hits, going way, way back, but the last 90 minutes of the show - he seriously just rocked out with all of his big hits! He ended the show with both mine and Kenyon's favorites.. "Only The Good Die Young" and "Piano Man".

Mission Call Details...

We are now home from St. George and can provide a little more detail on the opening of Alex's mission call. We had about 40 people in our family / kitchen area for the opening of Alex's mission call.

I sort of interevened a little in this entire process.. here is why! We had heard that the call could come as early as Wednesday, November 21st which was a surprise, because the papers were only delivered to Church Headquarters on Tuesday, November 13th - so we sort of expected the call to come on Wednesday, November 28th. Because we were planning our thanksgiving trip to St. George, our Bishop was kind enough to call the Missionary office and ask if Alex's papers were in process. He found out that they were being mailed. Wow - that was the first rush of adrenaline for all of us.

On Wednesday morning, around 9:15 a.m. I headed to the Midvale post office to check and see if they had arrived - luckily our postman is late to get on the road (we generally get our mail delivered between 4-5 in the afternoon). Sure enough, a kindly gentleman in the post office walked to the back room and walked back out with our daily mail. He looked me in the eye and said "fun times ahead"... there it was - a 9x11 envelope from "The Office of the First Presidency" addressed to Elder Alex Todd Petersen. Holy cow! It was real!

We made phone calls and were able to get most of our loved ones together for the opening. We had lots of interesting guesses from Zimbabwe, to Belize.. 2 friends in the group guessed Mexico. I didn't even end up guessing.... it was just way to stressful for me!

Anyway - it was a great night, and so much fun to see so many people gather around with love and support for Alex. Feel free to check out Al's Mission website at: http://www.missionsite.net/elderpetersen

We have much to be thankful for!

Drum Roll Please...

Elder Alex Todd Petersen has been called to serve in the Mexico City, Mexico Mission. (Spanish speaking.. not Mandarin - Sorry Trav!)

He will report to the MTC on February 20, 2007.

Mexico City Temple

We are so happy for him!

Alex's friend Chris Warden also received his call today! He will be serving in the Oakland California Mission - spanish speaking. Chris enters the MTC on January 9th..

We had about 50 people in our family room / kitchen area! It was so much fun to see all the love and support of Alex's friends and family!

What are you Thankful for?

Besides shoes and lipstick, here is my list... in no particular order..
- my son and husband
- the gospel
- my sister (you know who you are)
- my in-laws
- my extended family
- my BFF's (you know who you are)
- my other friends
- my skin (it's waterproof)
- make-up
- my girls, my calling, my presidency
- hand sanitizer
- my dryer
- laughter
- people who make me laugh (you know who you are)
- prayer
- distractions
- my job
- photographs
- grandma's
- eyesite
- ability to read
- music
- baby fat
- chips and salsa
- grass (fresh cut)
- heat
- massage therapy
- blue eyes (not mine) but I love looking at them
- outside & shelter

What are you thankful for?

I'm all grow'd up!

Yes sir... that's my baby!

19 years and 1 day ago, was the happiest day of my life! That is when I recieved the best give I've ever been given. Alex celebrated his 19th birthday yesterday and I wanted to share some photo's of him growing up! Awwww... Isn't he cute? Alex was born at 1:23 a.m. on "Election Day" 1988. He was born at Cottonwood Hospital and weigh 8 lbs 1 oz. He was such a good baby - happy from the moment he was born.

For his birthday, we had a surprise visit from Grandpa and Grandma Munson, and Aunt Karel and Uncle Gary Robinson who live in Nevada. We went to dinner, with all of them AND of course his "other parent" Deb to the new Cheesecake Factory. A dream dinner! It was so much fun!
Then Deb, Kenyon, Alex and I went to see "The Bee Movie". It's a cute animated film. We liked it! It's actually an animated film with an actual story line.. go figure!

I'll share a couple of my favorite Alex stories...
First, on a warm summers day when Alex was about 2 years old - I told him to go get his clothes, so that he could get dressed. He went into his room, and came back with a turtleneck shirt and a pair of shorts. I took the shirt from him and said "no, you can't wear this!" Of course, his response was "why?", to which I replied "it's too hot!". Alex looked at me confused for a minute, and then walked over to me and held his pointer finger out to the shirt I was holding in my hand and touched it with one tiny finger and said "it's not hot!". It made me realize how literal children are. It was one of the cutest days ever!

Second - when Alex was about 4 years old - a couple of weeks before Halloween, I asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween. He said he wanted to be a "spatula". I was completely confused and could not figure out how in the world I was going to pull that off. I asked him to tell me about the spatula costume.. like "what does it look like?" His response was "you know, like a spatula with sharp fangs and a cape". I then replied "oh, Dracula?" and he said "yeah, Dracula". He knew all along exactly what he was talking about.. I was the one with the problem. He was a cute little "spatula" that year, and by the way, he still has cousins that always call him "spatch" whenever he see's them!

A final story was just a year or so ago. Alex decided that he was going to save time in his life and rather than calling me "mom" he was going to shave some time off his communication timing and shorten me to just "Ma". He was sure that if he did this consistently for the rest of his life, he'd probably shave a good 8 minutes or so off of his "talk time".

I love that boy! Happy birfday Al P. Thanks for being my best gift ever!
Love,
"Ma"

Daffodil Girls

Yesterday we went to "Fiddlefest" at the Tahitian Noni in Provo. Two of my young women - Lauren and Lex are in a Bluegrass band - Daffodil Ridge, and they performed at this festival. There are three of them in the band, Lauren, Lex and their friend Hannah. All are in their junior year at Hillcrest, and all play more than one instrument. Although they were nervous, they did so good - in their first ever public performance. They also have a great manager.. one of the best girls, I've ever met.. Kim - I hope your reading this and weeping a tiny bit... You know it's true - I love you! We all know how amazing you are!

Anyway - check out their website at www.daffodilridge.com
Coming soon to a city near you!

P.S. My favorite song that they sing is "I'll Fly Away". Nice job girls! Al P. Melisa and I are your biggest fans!