Sorry, kids. Life got really busy and this little blog went by the wayside. Honestly, I didn't mean for it to happen. I had a post about college football awhile back that I didn't finish writing due to the untimely death of the 2009 OU football season. Then I went to Missouri for a week during Applesaucepalooza 2009. Then my husband neglected Thomas and me for a month while he lived at the National Weather Center finishing his thesis. Then Thomas grew teeth and decided not to take naps. Then...I can't remember. I'll just blame Kenta's thesis. it basically sucked the life out of our family for a few weeks. My creative juices were not flowing, thereby rendering me completely useless at blogging..

I've learned that blogging is a lot like flossing your teeth. You're really good and consistent at it for awhile, then you skip a day....then a week.....then a month...then you decide it's really not that important and quit altogether. You can't really see the immediate benefits of flossing. You don't really know if it's been worth your time until your dentist compliments you on your nice teeth at your check-up. The same with the blog. I put a lot of time into each post (don't ask - it's a little embarrassing how much time I spend) and wonder who actually reads it. So I get neglectful and people I didn't even know were reading it start asking me to update. I feel so loved. I solemnly swear I will never go AWOL again.

I mentioned we were busy. Kenta's been the busiest of all. He defended his thesis last week and PASSED. Huzzah! I now present to you:

Masters of the Universe

Master Yoda


Phil "Zen Master" Jackson

Master P

and the newest Master.....drumroll, please.....

.....Master Kenta

Doesn't he look so distinguished? That's what averaging 4-5 hours of sleep a night for six weeks will do to you. While Kenta was busy working on his thesis and not sleeping, Thomas was busy growing teeth and not sleeping. And, as usual, he was busy being very cute. I have pictures to prove it.

I realized on Halloween Eve that I had yet to take Thomas to a pumpkin patch for some pics. I'm a bad mom like that. Luckily there were about 4.5 pumpkins left for Thomas to pose with.

Caught by a huge gust of wind.



His hair is now long and plentiful enough to blow in the wind. Please take a moment to enlarge the picture and experience the cuteness for yourself.

I didn't have any snacks on hand, but Thomas found something else on his face to snack on. You might not want to enlarge that picture. Ewww...

Speaking of Thomas's face, here are the aforementioned teeth:

We are up to five now.

The obligatory "My Baby is So Cute in the Bathtub Picture":

( I may or may not have parted his hair that way)

And a bonus "My Baby is So Cute in the Bathtub" video:

The battery died after 20 seconds, which was extremely upsetting. He laughed for probably five minutes. It was the cutest thing ever and, of course, Kenta was at work when it happened and Thomas has not done it since.

You might remember that Halloween happened a few weeks ago. So as to not bore you with more blabber and self-indulgent Thomas pics, I will save our Halloween post for another day. But here's a preview:

to be continued.....

Sick and Tired

...is how I would describe the current state of my little boy, in three words or less. This is a first for us. His first time being sick and my first time taking care of a sick kid. Poor little guy.

I'm not quite sure what it is that he has. I can tell that he is way uncomfortable because he's been super-whiney and that's how I get when I'm sick and uncomfortable. Yesterday there was a drippy nose and eyes and the sniffles. I thought it might be allergies. He woke up less drippy today than yesterday, so I took that as a sign that he was on the mend. This excited me because I had plans to start a project and needed to make myself a Hobby Lobby run. Halfway to the Lob, I heard some painful cries from the backseat and then a horrible wretching noise. I've smelled some awful things in my young life, but I have discovered that banana barf is particularly offensive to my olfactory senses. Mission aborted: I turned the Hoodmobile around for the most direct course back home.

After I got the little guy cleaned up and took his temperature once again (negativo on the fever, so I ruled out The Swine) I suddenly realized that I didn't know what to do with my sick child. I waited for some motherly instincts to kick in, but they never did. So I called my mom.

Isn't it funny that no matter how old we get, when we are sick and not well, we still want our mommies? I remember a time when my younger brother got sick. My parents had just moved to Missouri. I was starting my sophomore year of college and my brother (almost 19) was starting his freshman year and living on his own for the first time. He got really sick and needed some serious TLC. I went over to our sister's house to meet him (she actually lived in my parents' old house with her family) and he was sitting on the front porch, crying, with his face in his hands. It was a pitiful sight. He was sick and needed his mom. But she wasn't there. So he went looking for another mom -my sister- to help him feel better.

So, as I'm contemplating a mother's ability to comfort a sick child, I'm wondering when this super-power kicks in because I know I sure don't have it yet. Poor little Thomas is probably suffering immensely because of it, too. Sorry buddy - I'm doing my best!

Since I can't figure out what to do with my sick baby, I thought I'd just take pictures to document how totally cute he is, even with drippy eyes and horrible banana barf breath.

Here are some of the "Best Ofs" from the sick Thomas photo shoot:

*A click on the above images will magnify his face in all of its goopy-eyed, crusty-nosed glory. You've been warned. Yummy.

Get well soon, little dude.

09-09-09

Well, with the date being 09-09-09, I thought it would be fun to do something that would be memorable and I had something nice just fly into my hands. It was the the Stevens Aero SQuiRT!


So, I signed up about a year and a half or so ago to be a pilot for Wings Across America (WAA) to help fly an r/c airplane in every state in the US. They started it last year in Virginia and it's finally made it to me. I was pilot number 155. Yesterday, I met up with Jim who was pilot number 154 and we made the hand off in Moore. It was nice to meet a fellow pilot and I was able to get a picture with him. Since I didn't ask his permission to post the picture, I'll hold off on it although if you really want to see it, you can get to it through the WAA website in a round-a-bout way. Anyway, he explained to me a little about the plane and what I needed to do to get it set up and what was in the box. After a few words and pictures, we loaded up the box into the car and I headed home hoping the weather would cooperate enough to let me fly it quickly to get it to Jim, pilot number 156. Maybe I'm supposed to name my next son Jim.


Anyway, I got the box home and we were both very impressed with how nice the box is. There are stickers all over the sides of the box of various r/c clubs that have participated.





There are signatures of every volunteer pilot registered to fly for WAA on the top of the box as you can see in that last picture.
I'm even on the website for WAA as having possession of the plane. You can see for yourself if you go to www.waa-08.org before Saturday afternoon.


Anyway, today, I thought it would be nice to try and fly the plane and hand it off the Jim #156 as soon as possible. I was online at work and saw an article on CNN about how people did some interesting things on September 9, 2009 (999) and I thought, "I should fly the plane on 09-09-09!" I looked at the weather forecast to see if I could fly today and saw the wind was pretty low at the time and that it would be picking up after 3:00 pm. I was originally planning on flying after work one day when the weather was nice but with the winds calm right then, I decided to take off at lunch to go fly it and then go back to work.

I got home right before Kendall did, as she was out running errands, and got the camera and video camera ready to go. Kendall was hoping to go but it was almost time for Thomas's nap so she was a little disappointed. Since this was a rare occasion and it wasn't going to take long, she made and exception decided to come along with Thomas for the event.

I first had Kendall snap a picture of me and Thomas with the SQuiRT in front of the apartment.


Then we packed the plane back up and headed to the park to go fly. As I was getting it put together in the back of the van, I found the wind was stronger than it was supposed to be. I had the thought in the back of my mind, "Don't do it" but I really wanted to fly on 999 and I didn't know when else I would be able to fly soon because of everything going on with school (that's another story) as well as the fact that there was a 20-40% chance of rain for the next 4 days. Yes, I know, 20% - 40% chance of rain in Oklahoma doesn't usually mean a thing but it's completely unpredictable, as I'll prove in the coming months, and I didn't want to take chances.

So, I got everything ready, Kendall sat in the back of the van ready to take pictures and Thomas sat in his car seat.
I did a range check, lined up the plane to fly into the wind, got behind the plane, and hit the throttle to get going and it just went in a circle. I tried again, and went in another circle. I repeated this several times.

You see, with a tail dragging plane, there are issues when you try and take off. Unless everything is just perfect, you tend to turn one way or another. The trick is to just throttle up the plane so the tail doesn't drag and if it's trimmed right, you'll go straight. I was nervous doing that though because it was windy and in addition to that, it wasn't my plane and there are about 150 more people after me that need to fly it, so I couldn't take unnecessary risks.

Well, I finally got it up in the air and started a circuit around the parking lot in the air. By then Thomas had started crying so Kendall had to get him and take care of him so all the pictures of the plane were taken while taking care of Thomas. Quite the feat if I may say so. Some were great shots.




Some were not quite that great.

Where's the plane?

She did a great job. I like the one where it's just taking off. You'll have to click that first picture to see the details.

Anyway, I got up in the air and realized, "It's a lot windier up there than it is down here!" but it was too late to jump ship. I had to fly it and get it down somehow in one piece and I could only fly for 5-6 minutes on a pack before the motor could have cut out. Definitely not nearly as serious or important as what Chesley "Sulley" Sullenberger had to do to land in the Hudson river


but I was pretty nervous.

I wanted to get the plane down so I did one circuit around the parking lot and tried to bring it in for a landing and was way too high to land closely so I throttled up again to gain altitude and do another circuit. Well, same thing again. I came in too high so I throttled up and tried to get it back North flying with the wind to get in position and lost control for a second and the wind turned it left (I was trying to go right) so it lost altitude quickly but finally turned North and went where I wanted it to go. I made sure to give it a little down elevator and got it low enough to land. The wind was strong enough that I probably could have floated it down and landed like a helicopter but I didn't care to try so I just landed the best I could and I landed it just fine.

Kind of hard to see there but it landed just fine even though it may look like it might crash.


I was quite relieved that it was back down on the ground in one piece. I took it back over to Kendall relieved that I had been able to fly it on 09-09-09 and also get it back down without any problems because I really thought I was in trouble when I was in the air.

This evening, I finished off the rest of my responsibilities. I was supposed to write my experiences and any advice to the next pilot(s) in the log book


and sign the top of the box as I was one of the volunteer pilots.




It really was a lot of fun to be able to participate in Wing Across America. If I end up in Arizona in the next few months, I could have the opportunity to fly it again which I believe will be a first for the journey, to have the same person fly in two states, but I could be wrong.

Here's the video of the flight. Sorry for how bumpy it is. If you zoom in closely where I'm flying to plane in the picture where it's taking off, you'll probably be able to see I have a hat on with a camera mounted on it so I can record where I was looking. Obviously, I missed the plane in some areas but I didn't care at the time because I was more concerned about getting the plane back in one piece. It was just a bumpy recording since I was moving around with it on my head. Image stabilization would be nice but you come to appreciate how well your body does it when you move around. You can click on the link below the video for a large version if you want to see the plane a little better.

View on ExposureRoom

Here's the final hand-off with Jim #156.


What did you do on 09-09-09?

I'm showing off Thomas if you can't tell.

6 Months

Our little guy is celebrating 1/2 year of life today. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. It seems like it was just yesterday when we were holding him in our arms for the first time....

He used to be so tiny (well, to ME) and would sleep all the time - anywhere and everywhere. Now he's a big boy and is growing and learning so much every day. He's a great sleeper - he still takes three naps a day and has been sleeping (completely) through the night consistently for over a month now. The only day we struggle a little bit is Sunday because we have church during his nap time - but we'd rather be there with a fussy baby than at home with a sleeping one. Here's a little bit of what Thomas has been up to lately:


Sitting unassisted. He's kind of skipped the rolling over stage (for now), but he loves to sit and play with his toys - especially his sock money (thanks, Aunt Mika!).

We started him on solids recently:

some edible....

....and others not so edible.


We've been trying out new veggies with him. So far we've had squash, sweet potatoes, and green beans. He wasn't too keen on the green beans, but has loved everything else. It's fun to see him grow up, but I have to admit that part of me is a little sad. The more solid food he eats and the older he gets, the less he will need me. Well, I guess he'll still need me - just in other ways.

Perhaps the most exciting development is that Thomas sprouted some new teeth about three weeks ago! We had kind of a difficult time getting a picture of his two little teeth...

We finally got a good one:



I guess this means we'll be giving Uncle Soren a visit in a few years (assuming he graduates from dental school and Thomas continues to grow teeth)

What else can I say? Thomas is busy growing and babbling and chewing and slobbering and discovering and, in general, just busy being very cute.

What a good lookin' guy. He's quite the ladies' man.

I think it goes without saying that he's got us wrapped around his little finger. How could you say "no" to a face like that?

Happy six months, Thomas!

"Be Thou an Example"

Thomas is becoming increasingly more aware of the world around him. It's really neat to watch him as he discovers new things and tests his physical limits. As he is growing and starting to interact more with us, I am also becoming more aware of the example that I am setting as a mother. I think that I'm generally a pretty good person. However, there are definitely some areas of my life that need some work. This was made very evident to me after a little episode involving me and some college girl from Texas on Lindsey St. last week. Let me elaborate:

Kenta and I had plans to meet his dad and sister for lunch on Friday. It was freshman move-in day, so traffic was bumper to bumper from the Lindsey St. exit to campus (about three or four miles). I was crawling East on Lindsey when traffic eventually came to a complete stop near an intersection with a small side street. I had the option of continuing to move forward and block the intersection or stay where I was and leave the intersection open in case someone in oncoming traffic wanted to make a left turn.

Being the courteous driver that I am, I decided to stay where I was and leave the intersection open - after all, traffic wasn't going to be moving for awhile, so why block the intersection for a long period of time? At about the same time I decided to stay put, I noticed that Kenta had pulled up to the stop sign of the intersection that I had left open (he was coming from work). Being the courteous driver that I am, I motioned to him that he could turn on to Lindsey St. in front of me when traffic finally got moving again.

As we were sitting there waiting for traffic to move, I saw a girl out of the corner of my eye pull up beside me, and then proceed to move directly in front of me - right into the space that I had intentionally left open so that the intersection would not be blocked! I was livid. I am not big on horn usage, but I was so mad I honked at that girl long and loud. As we sat there at a standstill, my anger intensified. How dare she! Who does she think she is? She can't push ME around just because I drive a minivan!

So I let her have it.

I honked again. And again. And one more time for good measure - just in case she hadn't heard me the first sixteen times. This girl was, after all, a complete imbecile, as evidenced by her absolute ignorance of common driving courtesy (I was the courteous driver, remember?). We continued to sit and sit and sit. I started to notice things about The Offender: BMW. Texas plates. Backseat filled to the brim with clothing and other college essentials - no doubt, she was an incoming freshman. My blood began to boil. I began to curse (in every PG-13 curse word I could think of) this girl in front of me, who I had deduced was a spoiled (BMW) brat (freshman) who knew absoltely nothing about driving (Texas plates). I threw my hands up - quite dramatically - in a "what-were-you-thinking - you-IDIOT?!?!?!?!" kind of way. A stream of insults flowed freely from my mouth.

I continued to PG-13 swear at her and wave my arms like a fool until I pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant. When I finally met up with Kenta, I was still fuming. I proceeded to vent to him, my father-in-law, my sister-in-law, all my friends and family on Facebook, and anyone else who would listen, for the rest of the day. When Kenta came home that night, I brought up the subject once again. I was certain that he would be proud of me for being assertive and not letting some little punk college girl push me around. Boy, was I wrong. His reaction:

"Uh...Kendall..um, I was actually a little embarassed".

What?!? Kenta? My husband that loves swift justice for all traffic offenders? The man that squeals with delight every time he sees a highway patrolman pull someone over? The man that I once scolded for using his horn too much? Was I hearing this right?

"I thought it was a little overboard, with you waving your arms and stuff. It was okay to honk the first time, but you just kept doing it. Yeah....I was glad that no one knew I was your husband."

Ouch. Not really the reaction I was expecting.

I started to think about what Kenta said. Had I really been that out of line? Maybe my reaction had been a little overboard. Maybe I didn't need to honk and insult this girl as much as I had. After all, it wasn't like she had been able to hear any of the nasty remarks that I had directed towards her.

And then it hit me.

All those things I'd said had been heard by someone - just not the person for which they had been intended. While I was cursing the existence of The Offender, my sweet baby boy was in the backseat, babbling to a stuffed cow. Of course this was all lost on me in the heat of the moment, but hours later as I pondered this event, I asked myself, "What kind of example am I setting for my son?"

The following picture came to mind:



This is a picture that I used to laugh at when I was studying the topic of "Road Rage" in my driver's ed manual. I thought it was so ridiculous. Who actually looks like that when they are driving? Little did I know that ten years after I mocked this picture, I myself had become the poster child for road rage. That was a humbling realization.

As I began to think further about the example that I am setting for Thomas, I knew that road rage was only one of many areas in which I could improve. Kenta and I have discussed at length how we can be better examples for him as he grows and begins to pick up our habits - both good and bad. We took the plunge and completely got rid of our TV. We are sifting through our itunes and have had to confiscate about 87% of our Green Day collection. I'm shopping for a replacement for my favorite four-letter word (it starts with "c" and ends with "rap"). It's my all-purpose exclamation (expletive?) of choice - I say it when I drop something, forget something, stub my toe, etc. I need a better word to replace it with. Kenta seems to think that it's possible to stub my toe and not say ANYTHING, but I disagree. If you've got a good word, I'd welcome any suggestions. I just decided that I don't want that coming out of Thomas's mouth, so it can't be coming out of mine anymore.

Going TV-free isn't as bad as I thought it would be - which is surprising, given that I spent the entirety of last summer sick and pregnant watching so many episodes of Law & Order that I actually saw repeats of the reruns. I've heard that a new season of Project Runway (an old favorite of mine) is underway, but that's a thing of the past for me now, too. I decided that the not-so carefully-bleeped-out cuss words might as well have not even been bleeped out in the first place - and is that anything that I should be listening to or watching?

Please understand that I do not think less of anyone for viewing certain shows or listening to certain music or saying certain things. I'm not perfect and never will claim to be. I've just decided that Thomas is going to be bombarded with so much filth and garbage in his life (have you been to a high school lately?) when he gets older, that I want him to have a place where he can get away from all of it. I want our home to be a safe haven for him.

Maybe I'll be accused some day of having kids that "live in a bubble" and are "too sheltered". So what? I can say from personal experience that it is possible to live a "G-rated" life and still function in society. I did it as a missionary for eighteen months. We'll still have a computer with the internet - but there will be filters. I'm sure that some day we'll get another TV - but there will be rules. I just don't see a point in exposing our kids to what the world calls "entertainment".

Awwww....look at that sweet face. Who would want to corrupt such an innocent little thing like that?

So - for those of you that are around me and see me quite a bit - remember that I'm still a work in progress. I might accidentally slip and say that favorite word of mine, but I'm really trying to make an effort not to. And if you have a TV and an OU football game is on.......an invite would be welcome :)

We are a Happy Family

About a year ago, my sister-in-law Hannah and I were talking on the phone. We realized that it had been two years since our entire family had gotten together - the summer my brother Soren and I had gotten married (not to each other). We had made a habit out of getting together every few years for weddings, but after the last two of us got married, there were no plans to get together again. None. As Hannah and I discussed how tragic this was, we decided that plans were in order for a Michaelsen family reunion the summer of 2009. After countless phone calls, emails, pleadings with in-laws, date changes due to conflicts with school, childbirth, previously planned vacations, etc., we -finally!- nailed down a weekend when we could all get together. ALL 45 of us (plus my grandma and aunt). Admittedly I was VERY nervous about how things would go. I was anticipating drama that, thankfully, never materialized. I was worried about people having a good time, in-laws getting overwhelmed, my mom making us work instead of play, activites not turning out well, etc. I wanted SO BADLY for this to go well so that people would feel excited about the possibility of more family reunions. How did things go? We'll just let the pictures speak for themselves:

The Homestead

If you are going to throw a party and invite a lot of people, you gotta make room for them. My parents did a MAJOR renovation on their house this past year, almost doubling its size. What are they going to do with all of the extra space when we aren't there? The missionaries are now living in the furnished basement. Also, there is always an open invitation to ANYONE who wants to come and stay there. It's a nice pit stop if you are planning on visiting Nauvoo. My parents also live very close to Independence, MO if you are wanting to visit some church history sites. The house sits on twenty-six acres complete with...

A pond...

...and a zipline

There were plenty of other outdoor activites:

slip'n slide kickball

RC truck racing

The track that Kenta and the boys built

inner tube fun

and even some indoor ones, too:

Family swim meet at community pool

waterslide

The fish were biting....

Hadley defies the odds with her Barbie fishing pole and reels one in

Abe gets excited

Soren had the catch of the week - 14.5 lb. catfish

...and so were we

we threw a party for the girls...

...and one for the boys (plus Jenna)

...and we even threw a birthday party for EVERYONE!!

stories were told:

Grandma Madsen (my maternal grandmother) tells us stories from her life

talents were shared:

Grandma teaches Kristin how to crochet

Davis shows us his soccer moves

we sang

and we danced

we laughed

and some of us cried (a lot)

Cousins bonded

friendships were born

Thomas - 5 mos., Molly - 5 weeks, Grant - 9 mos., Owen - 9 weeks

When it all got a little too crazy, there were places to get away from it all and just be alone

Kenta working on his research

And Ben writing his thesis (or dissertation?)

But more often than not, we wanted to be together

After months and months of anticipation, we were finally all together:

And before we knew it, it was all over

I love you guys and already miss you!! See you all again in two years!

Mission Accomplished

Now that July is halfway over, I'm FINALLY getting around to blogging about something that happened in June. June is a very busy month for us. Each June we celebrate me getting a year older, us being married a year longer, Kenta being a dad and our "mission anniversaries". Kenta entered the MTC to begin his mission to Japan on June 20, 2001. Three years later, on June 16, 2004, I began the adventure of a lifetime as I entered the MTC to begin my mission to Lima, Peru. While we ponder almost daily the events of our missions, we take a little extra time on these days to reflect on what a glorious experience our missions really were. While I can't speak for Kenta, I would say (for me) that everything good that I have in life comes from my decision to serve a mission (a lot of people say that about their baptism, but I think my mission was the most spiritually defining moment in my life thus far).

For the men in the LDS church, it is not necessarily a requirement to serve a mission. However, it is considered an important preisthood duty or responsibility. There is an expectation that you will go, so your parents, church leaders, Sunday school teachers, etc. strongly encourage it. However, when it is all said and done, you still can choose whether or not to go. For the women? That can be kind of a touchy subject. I always encourage the young women that I work with to consider a mission, but to realize at the same time that it is not their responsibilty to do so. Many women marry before they turn twenty-one (the minimum age requirement for a sister missionary) and others just don't feel that it is right for them. Which is perfectly fine. However, if women desire to serve a mission, it is their privilege to do so. As for me? I always thought a mission would be a good idea and something that I might do, but just left it at that. That all changed when I was seventeen. My parents and my younger brother and I went to pick up my sister, Stephanie, from her mission in Argentina. Her transformation as a missionary was incredible. I saw the way she loved the people and the way they loved her back. I wanted to experience that. My mind was set. I had to go. The only thing that could have kept me home was if some awesome guy made me an offer that I couldn't refuse. That didn't happen (I was absolutely not expecting it to) so off I went.

My sister, Maren, came home from her mission in Chile a little over a year before I left on mine. When I asked her what a mission was like she said, "It's like condensed life. Every experience - every emotion - you could ever imagine is crammed into eighteen months". I loved listening to her mission stories and anyone else who was willing to share theirs. I gobbled it up and dreamt about where I would go, the people I would meet, my companions, etc. I was so impatient to turn twenty-one. Before I left on my mission, I had two close friends (both girls) who left on their missions - one to Brazil and one to Las Vegas. My little brother left on his mission to California about six months before me. Finally! It was my turn to go. I opened my call and saw the words - "Lima Peru North". Of course I was going to South America -duh!-that's where all the Michaelsen girls go (apparently). I was so excited to begin.

I will not lie. The mission was one of the hardest things I have ever done. At times I would get mad at my sisters and think, "Why didn't they tell me how hard this would be?!?!?!". I realized, though, that my mission was filled with experiences that I needed to have to teach me specific lessons that I needed to learn. I've thought a lot about those lessons that I learned in Peru, and I've compiled a list of sorts:

All I Ever Needed to Know, I Learned as a Missionary in Peru


1) I can live without a cellphone. Or a computer. Or a car. Or a TV.
It was actually refreshing to only have internet access for one hour a week to email family, use payphones only to call people for setting up an appointment, and use TVs only to show church movies.

2) People are bigger than dogs, so we shouldn't be afraid of them.
I only got bitten twice and both times it was because I stepped too close to dogs that I didn't see. Most of the time I ignored the mangey mutts or yelled at them if they got too close. One of my proudest accomplishments was never stepping in dog poo the whole time I was in Peru.

3) South Americans are Americans, too, ya know.
Don't ever tell a South American that you are "American" because-surprise!- so are they. Yes, they do live on a different continent and they celebrate Christmas in the summer, but that doesn't make them less American. Simply tell them you are "norteamericano/a" or, more specifically, "estadounidense"

4)When in Rome...or I guess I Should Say "When in Lima"
Flush your toilet paper?!? Nah! Not in Peru. That's what those handy little wastebaskets next to the toilet are for. (If you are still clueless about the purpose of the little trashcan next to the toilet, come find me and I will educate you.)

5) Montezuma's Revenge is not exclusively reserved for unsuspecting tourists in Mexico
Ahhh...yes. A sensitive subject, indeed, but one that must be mentioned. Nary a missionary makes it through their entire mission without getting some crazy Peruvian stomach/intestinal/bowel virus. The most memorable bouts for me? When my entire district in the Peru MTC got some awful not-quite-as-bad-as-dysentery-but-still-really-bad intestinal distress. (I blame the food). The other time was at the very end of my mission. My parents had come to Peru to see the sights and meet the people. We were atop Maccu Picchu and I felt my stomach begin to churn. I held it off for as long as I could. We were nearing the end of the tour and I couldn't take it anymore. I grabbed my mom's hand (I couldn't be alone - I had to have someone with me all the time) and ran for my life - actually, more for my dignity. There was a HUGE line of people at the restrooms looking for change in their wallets to get in (yeah - not free public restrooms). I knew beforehand that I would have to pay and already had the money in my hand. I yelled "Permiso! Emergencia!" ran past the crowd of people, slammed my money down in front of the collector, and ran into the bathrooms. Just in time. Instant relief.

This was the only toilet picture I had. This little guy was found in the toilet of some other sister missionaries that lived close to us. They named him Pez.

6) I will, out of necessity (or curiousity), eat anything you place in front of me
Alligator? Squid? Cow hearts? Cow tripe? Guinea pig ("cuy")? Rhinocerous beetle larvae ("suri")? A plate full of hot spaghetti and boiled bananas for lunch on a scorching day in the Peruvian jungle? I've had it all. And lived to tell about it. My only regret is that I never got to eat a chicken foot. All of my Peruvian companions got chicken feet in their soup, but they never gave one to me.

That's me with the cuy. The head is on the upper lefthand side of the plate.

I couldn't find the actual picture of me eating the suri, but this little dude looks very similar to the one that I ate. It does not "taste like chicken". I thought it kind of tasted like bacon (I think it was fried). The head was crunchy and you could see little insecty hairs on it....ewwwww....

7) Five shirts and three skirts can provide (seemingly) endless clothing combinations
I've never been one to care too much about what I wear. I was even less concerned about it on my mission. I realized that I really don't need that many clothes. Which is why I have a closet and three storage tubs full of them now.....

Some of us hermanas modeling typical missionary garb atop an Incan ruin

8) Quotation marks are very versatile language symbols
If your language arts teacher taught you that there are specific times only in which you may utilize quotation marks, then she must have never been to South America. These puppies show up in the most unexpected (or should I say "unnecessary"?) places.

This sign always made me wonder. Was it really a chicken burger or was it a "chicken burger"? I never found out.

This was not a picture that I took myself, but I saw plenty of examples like this.

9) There are still people in the world who have never seen a vending machine, eaten salad dressing, used dental floss, or slept on a mattress
And those people would be some of my mission companions. There are so many modern day (and some not so modern) conveniences that we have and take for granted. Have you ever had to worry about unsafe drinking water? Do you know anybody that has died from getting a routine vaccination? Have you ever had to worry about contracting tuberculosis? These concerns are just part of life for a typical Peruvian.

A street in Lima

A street in Iquitos

10) Sunday should be a day of rest - if you aren't a missionary
Sunday was the busiest day. Helping people get to church, going to all the meetings, teaching classes and giving talks on a moment's notice, visiting people, etc. - whew! - by the time the day was over, we were wiped out. Lucky for us, preparation day was on Monday, so we had time to recover before it all started over again.

11) "They that be with us are more than they that be with them" (2 Kgs. 6:16)
I felt invincible as a missionary. Not a reckless kind of invincibility, but more of a "We've got an important message to share, so the Lord will protect us" kind of invincibility. Like the time when a huge, bald, shirtless, drunk man was yelling English profanities at us and I was the only one who understood what he was saying. Or when two con-artists nearly got the best of my companion and I (they no doubt would have robbed us). Or when my companion and I found out that the route we had been taking home at night (in the dark) went through a park where there was a lot of drug dealing. The Lord truly does protect those that serve him. I heard many stories from others missionaries that were with me in Peru that were even scarier (one Elder was actually pulled into a vehicle, hit in the face with a gun, robbed, and dumped out on the edge of town), but we all felt protected doing the Lord's work.

The Lima temple. I always felt an amazing peace when we were here.

12) Distance really does make the heart grow fonder
Just ask Kenta when he really started to fall in love with me *wink, wink* (of course he NEVER told me about those feelings while I was on my mission)

13) The Lord answers our prayers - and sometimes He even answers them immediately

I learned as a missionary that the Lord really does bless His children when they ask Him in faith. I remember one time we were walking on a hot Sunday afternoon. I was sooooo hungry because our pensionista (the lady who cooked for us) was pregnant and sick and had her thirteen year-old neighbor cook for us and we really did not get enough to eat. We had to buy snacks almost everyday. We couldn't buy anything on Sunday and we had nothing and I was STARVING. I silently asked the Lord to either help me cope with my hunger or send us some food. Not ten minutes later, a member came out of our house and offered us some fruit as we were walking by. I was so very grateful. Another time, my companion and I had both gotten very, very sick and I needed some meds badly (specifically some chewable pepto tablets). The next day - I kid you not - a package came from my mom with the two things that I needed most - chewable Pepto and tons of knee-highs. How in the world did my mom know weeks in advance that I would need these things, when a) I hadn't yet asked for them and b) I hadn't been sick. All I know is that the Lord really does know what we need - even before we ask Him - and provides the means by which we can receive those blessings.

14) There will always be a ray of sunshine - even on the cloudiest day

There was a day when my companion and I walked around for hours and could not find anyone at home or anyone who would listen (okay - that was almost every day). We remembered that we had received a bunch of addresses of people who wanted us to visit them and we set out to look for them. Finally, at the end of a long, hard day, we found Hermana Amanda and her family. They were amazing. They were prepared. They were a ray of sunshine, not only on that day, but for my entire mission. Amanda was baptized soon after. By the end of my mission, three of her adult daughters and her son were all baptized. It was a beautiful transformation to watch.

15) The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only cure for the world's ills
Could you imagine what the world would be like if we all truly understood who Jesus Christ is and what He did for us? There would be a lot less heartache and pain if we all understood that Jesus Christ is our Savior and acted accordingly.

16) Despite what you may think, Oprah's "Best Life" program is not the key to true happiness
Sure, Oprah's got some great ideas. Some of them I've tried myself. But there is no self-help book out there that will do more for you than sincerely studying the scriptures and making prayer a daily occurance in your life. The happiest times in my life is when I have been failthfully reading the words of the Lord in the scriptures and when I have been saying sincere, hearfelt prayers. The times I have been the most unhappy is when I have neglected doing those things.

Hermanito Jorge. The happiest kid I met. What you can't see is that he is wearing boots in the baptismal font. Jorge was born severely pigeon-toed and cannot walk unless he wears his boots.

So, that's a little bit about what I learned from my time spent as a missionary in Peru. It was an incredible, life changing experience that I feel privileged to have had. I feel that I am a better person, wife, and mother because of the important lessons that I learned. I can't wait to go on missions with Kenta once all of our kids are grown up and he's retired. Congratulations if you made it to the end of this ridiculously long post. You will be rewarded with - what else? - an adorable Thomas picture:

He didn't pose for this. Obviously.