videos of Ryan opening his mission call

Made and edited by Hannah:

opening the call--
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk8D0FTov9s

outtakes (I especially love the look on Ryan's face when he notices what Hannah is doing)--
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAanot5oESI

And the winner of the Guess Where Ryan Is Going Game is his cousin Sarah!

Ryan has been called to serve as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Louisiana Baton Rouge mission, English speaking. He reports May 1st.

deep breath and sigh

Wow.

I was baptized almost 38 years ago (March 21, 1975) in Metairie, Louisiana (just west of New Orleans). So Ryan will be serving in the mission I was baptized in. I love it. I hope the humidity doesn't kill him.

Because of Ryan getting back from school on Saturday April 13th and Andrew's wedding on Thursday April 25th, That doesn't give us much time for Ryan to go to the temple to receive his own endowment. It's lined up for Friday April 19th at 6 pm.

Andrew and Heather's wedding is in 9 weeks. Ryan reports in 10 weeks--2 1/2 weeks after he gets back from college.

deep breath again

I was waiting till after Ryan's call to really concentrate on getting the wedding reception for Provo planned. I was thinking, because of how other mission calls were coming in that Ryan would report end of June or beginning of July. He had put May 1st as his first available date but we didn't think he'd go that soon.

Ryan's mission president will be President Jim M. Wall. Here is a link to his bio:
 http://www.louisianabatonrougemission.org/mission-president

Pres. Wall will be there for 14 months of Ryan's mission, and then in July 2014, a new mission president will come in for Ryan's last 10 months.

Waiting for Ryan's mission call, Poetry Out Loud, and other stuff

So Ryan had his last interview last Sunday and his mission papers were sent off to Salt Lake. According to Uncle Alan, who can see computer updates on Ryan's account, the call has been issued...now we just have to wait for it to arrive! His cousin's arrived on a Thursday, so we will try and be patient until then. We asked people to give their guesses as to where he's going...I will put the guesses I've collected at the end of the post. If you haven't guessed yet, but still wish to, let me know and I will add your guess to the list.

Anyway, Hannah's been busy lately. Tuesday night was an Improv Night at the high school to raise money for the Nevada Acting Competition to be held in Henderson, Nevada on March 14-16. Hannah is one of those going...if it all works and they get to go. She is in a musical number "They Both Reached for the Gun" from the musical Chicago.

Wednesday night, Hannah participated in Churchill county's Poetry Out Loud contest and won...she will be going to the state competition if we can get her there. It turns out that the State competition is in Reno on Saturday March 16th...we are looking into flying her up from Vegas that morning from the Acting Competition. Hopefully it will all work out. She carries on the family tradition as Andrew twice won our county's Poetry Out Loud contest as well as her cousin Sarah.

If you are interested in the 2 poems she recited, they are April Love by Ernest Dowson and Fire and Ice by Robert Frost.

Yesterday, Hannah attended the ROTC ball. Sadly, I had no pictures as I was in Reno picking up my camera that had just been fixed. I was hoping to take a photo afterwards, but she had already changed by the time I saw her. Somebody better have photos to share.

Andrew shares with us this week that his math minor requirements are all filled! Now he just has to finish his English major and general ed classes. Some progress in the wedding plans--Heather has found her dress! Now, if I could just find one for me.

Eric sounds like he is very busy and doing well. Here's just a snippet from this week's email:

The new Very Special Projects Project we got started working on is adding info boxes to counties on the FamilySearch wiki. I worked on North Dakota, and got finished Thursday. See the box on the right side, with county seat information and stuff? I added that. https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/McIntosh_County,_North_Dakota We'd gone through how to do that a bit last week, but I guess I was the only one who caught on at first, so I had to be more or less unofficially put in charge of the project on Wednesday, helping out everyone else who didn't know what was going on.

Alex is continuing with his swimming lessons that he got for Christmas and hopefully soon will be able to pass the requirements for his merit badge. He also continues to take piano lessons and is reading a lot.

I just finished an 8 day subbing job as the high school band and choir teacher. It was fun. It made me wish I had been in the marching band in high school (I'm not sure we had one, though...strange, isn't it?). I quit the clarinet in 7th grade, however. Man, I might start going to the sports games just for the band.

Glen is still super busy. I don't know how he does everything he does. Between school and church and scouts he rarely has a minute. Though we did get to spend yesterday afternoon and evening together in Reno. He is currently building the set for Feb 22 & 23rd's play "Murder Runs in the Family" (which is where he'll be tomorrow, on his day off) and soon it'll be "The Giver" he works on.

Now for the guesses (Ryan took French in high school, which is why I think so many guessed French speaking):

Glen-Paris France
Beth-Eugene Oregon (where my parents live) or Portugal (where I've decided I'd really like to visit)
Andrew-Peru
Heather-Northeastern States or Berlin Germany
Eric-Massachusetts (I used to live there) or Guam
Elder Smith (Eric's companion)-Mississippi or Guatemala
Ryan-Eugene Oregon
Hannah- Quebec, Canada ("the more specific you are, the more cool points you get"~Hannah)
Alex-France
Gma P-St. Louis Missouri
Gpa P-Michigan (where Glen and Adam went)
Gma and Gpa J-Uruguay (where I went)
David-South Carolina (my grandma's family is from there)
Jackie-France
Daniel-Brazil
Hanna-New Mexico
Brinley-Washington
Laila-California (where my father-in-law was born)
Elise-New York (where I was born)
Brandon-BC Canada
Calista-New York, New York
Jacob P-West Virginia
Susan-California or Brazil
Alicia-Kenya 
Dallin-Arizona
Michael-Madrid Spain
Teresa-Ecuador
Matt-Alabama (where my grandma was born)
Bryce-Houston Texas
Jessica-Chile
Thomas H-Hawaii
Brendan-New York
Sister Haley Loveland-Chicago Illinois (she is currently serving in the California Roseville Mission)
Amanda-Mexico 
Alan-Chicago, Illinois
Carey-Chile
Mindy-Texas
Jon-Florida (where my Dad and sister were born)
Melissa-New Hampshire
Maddie-Italy (where the Perazzos come from)
Kathy-Alaska
Gary-Philippines (where Ryan's cousin Jake just got called)
Sarah-Hmm . . . no one has been to the bible belt yet. How about Louisiana! French speaking? (that's where my sister and I joined the church)
Becky-Maine (where my brother Kyle currently lives)
Joseph-mainland China (where friend and roommate Jiaxin is from)
Thomas-France
Ben-Australia (where friend Travis just got called)
Denise-Peru
Pat-Mexico
Danny-Philippines
Zach-Mordor
Jake-Columbia
Kyle-Uruguay
Jiaxin-Taiwan
Darcy-Germany (where my mom's maternal side is from)
Chalea-Ohio (where my mom was born)
Ashley-France
Scottie-Mexico
Amye-somewhere in Europe 
Don-Spain
Tracy-Philippines
DonNell-Washington
Heidi-Argentina
Cherilee-Eastern US or Western Europe
Terra-Guatemala
Amy-Guatemala or Lansing Michigan  
Patti-Oklahoma
Skylar-Kentucky 
Jennifer-Great Lakes region 
Maralea-Philippines 
Tracy-El Salvador San Salvador/Belize
Steven-New York
Claudia-Indiana (her daughter just opened her mission call yesterday and that's where she's going)
Jeff-Arizona 
Melissa J-Japan Tokyo North 
Torree-Montana 
Corinne-Belgium or France