Congratulations Denise!!!

It was relatively quiet in my house this week. I subbed a little and spent time cleaning out Eric's and Ryan's rooms. But for my sister, Denise, and her family it was definitely not quiet!

Last Sunday, her youngest son, Jake, gave his farewell talk at Church. Tuesday (or was it Monday?) he was set apart as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Wednesday morning he flew out to Manila to go to the Missionary Training Center there.

Thursday, my sister's daughter-in-law Stephanie--who was overdue with my sister's first grandchild and my parents' first great-grandchild--finally went into labor. My nephew, Zach, was just finishing up his military training (munitions for the Air Force--he'll be stationed at Hill Air Force Base in Utah) and wouldn't be arriving until Friday.

As Stephanie was laboring in the military hospital in Vegas, there was a bomb scare because of a suspicious looking package near the gift shop, and Denise and Stephanie's mother had to be evacuated. Stephanie was too close to delivering, so they kept her in the hospital while the others were out behind a barricade. After almost 2 hours, they finally let people back in. Denise and Stephanie's mom ran down the halls while putting on their scrubs so they could arrive in time for baby Landon's birth! He weighed in at 9 lbs 9 oz.

Zach arrived on Friday to meet his son. He leaves Monday morning again, but it shouldn't be much longer until their family can be together at Hill.

Deni and Jake at the airport, Wed May 22nd

Deni and Landon, Thurs May 23rd

Zach, Landon, and Stephanie, Fri May 24th

Landon, the newest member of the family

Fri. May 24th

In between the birth of Landon Thursday afternoon and his daddy's arrival Friday evening, Denise, who is retiring from teaching this year, had a little party at work.

So, congratulations on everything this week, Denise!!!

Ryan's first email from the field and a photo

First off, my sister's youngest, Jake, flies to the Philippines on Wednesday to start his mission. It's such an exciting time in our lives. Wow. My parents will have 3 grandsons out as missionaries at the same time! (they have 9 grandsons and 1 granddaughter, by the way)

Today is p-day for Ryan, so we received an email and got a few details from him. We also got some snail mail--a letter from Pres. Wall, Ryan's mission president. Besides President Wall's letter, there was a photo of Ryan with Pres. and Sis. Wall and a hand-written letter from Ryan.

The gist of the email:

He is in Amite (which is pronounced ay-meet) with Elder Michael Silva, the district leader, who is from Ogden, Utah. Amite is a relatively small town, yet besides the 2 Elders, there is also now a pair of sister missionaries there. Their church building is a renovated bank and the branch only has about 20 old people in it. Ryan and his companion have a car. He says most areas there do have a car, but a few are for bikes. When they run out of miles on their cars, they have to use their bikes. It hasn't rained in a week (since Ryan has been there), so they are calling it a drought.

And, he's seen his first fireflies! I love fireflies. When we were in Iowa 2 summers ago we tried to find some because the kids have never seen any. We weren't really successful. It's silly, but I'm glad he's seen some already.

I will post his first email. If you are going to read it, you might need an explanation like I did--a grandpa is your trainer's trainer. A cousin is someone with whom you share your grandpa. I had never heard such terms before, but Glen knew what they meant.

The email:

I'm having a good time here.

My trip over went well. The humidity isn't killing me yet, but I've been told that lately it has been dry. It hasn't rained since I got here and according to everyone if it doesn't rain within the span of a week it means we're in a drought. So I guess we're in a drought.

Elder Silva is my trainer. He has been out for about 10 months. He is the district leader. He is from Ogden, Utah. He is pretty cool. He is definitely quiet when compared to Elder Barker. Elder Bailey is my grandpa. Elder Barker is serving in Hammond, which is pretty close. I got to see him on Saturday when we went to Hammond to play volleyball. I think Elder Barker is my cousin. His trainer is Elder Murray, who is a District Leader. Elder Steele was assigned to the Alexandria Zone. I've heard it's a black hole, so I'm never going to see him again unless I go there too. Elder Steele's companion is also a District Leader. Elder Castro is in Slaughter. So Elder Barker, Elder Castro and I are all in the Denham Zone. I don't know if I told you before but Elder Castro and Elder Steele were MTC companions that were in our district and roomed with us.

Again I'm serving in Amite. It's pronounced "ay-meet." It's a pretty small town. We have Sister missionaries in Amite now, which we didn't have before. There is a train that goes through this town quite often. It goes right by the church. It has a branch with about 20 people in it. Almost everyone is really old. Our church that we meet in used to be a bank. It's really small and you can tell that the Kitchen and the primary rooms used to be vaults. The people here are friendly and Elder Silva and I are going to go fishing later. The apartment we live in is really nice. We have a car. There are a lot of cars in this mission, but there are a few areas that are biking areas. We're running out of miles for the month so we're going to have to bike for a few days. There's not too many people here with a thick accent. That's a relief.

My favorite people by far right now is the Gerrety family. The mom and dad are Catholic and they have two kids, Shannon and Bryan. Bryan is 17 and I'm assuming that Shannon is around 15. The parents aren't taking lessons from us, but they are really friendly. Bryan and Shannon are interested in learning about the church, but not too much the spiritual side of things. Bryan is really smart and the way his mind works is a lot like mine. They both came to church yesterday and they enjoyed the most part of it. They said they definitely liked it more than the Catholic church even though it is a couple hours longer.

After volleyball the other day, Shannon and Bryan invited us over to watch a movie. We watched Finding Faith in Christ. The Sister missionaries were there too. We ate a lot of snacks. It was a lot of fun.

I saw a couple fireflies the other day. It was cool.

I met an Elder Wolfe. He grew up in Susanville and said that He's played football against Fallon. Or something like that. He said that he is related to a Cameron Mills. I don't know him, but he lives in Fallon.

Sister Bahe said she is also related to people in Fallon. I think she said Kelly Andrews, but I'm not entirely sure. Sister Bahe is 98. Her and her daughter and sister Berch are moving to Colorado.

It sounds like all is going well. Thanks for telling me about Skye's mission call that's so cool [Skye is going to Guatemala]. Make sure you tell me where Scott Darington gets his call to. I hope Dad's arm feels better by now. I found a jar of unopened jelly in our fridge that expired ten years ago. We are allowed to listen to any music that invites the spirit. If you want you can send the Prince of Eygpt CD, but I don't care. We already have some good music, like songs from the children's songbook and a few Owl City songs.

Well, my time on the computer is just about up, so I'll email you next week.

Love,

Elder R Perazzo

Glen's birthday

Today was Glen's 50th birthday. I told him that being older than he is kind of takes the fun out of it as I can't tease him about his age. Oh, well.

Hannah made the fondant which I used to make his main cake. We brought this one over to Kathy's house because Sarah was reporting on her semester in Israel today. The report was fantastic. Is there any way I can visit Israel without traveling? I would love to go see it. [ha! Alex just told me the Tardis is the solution to my problem. I guess that would work, but my nerves couldn't take Dr. Who having to rescue me from aliens in order to use the Tardis.] Anyway, here is Glen and his cake:

Glen had a second cake...one which revealed to him what his gift was. Can you take a guess? The guy in the picture below is sitting in a hot tub. Glen's hot tub died a few years ago and he used to use it twice a day, but we haven't had the funds to replace it. Now, he's not getting a hot tub yet, it's just that now that the wedding is over and Ryan is on his mission, we can start putting money in Glen's next hot tub fund. I'm hoping by Christmas he'll get to relax and soak once again.

In other news:

Ryan flew to Louisiana on Tuesday...6 am flight. That means our call from him from the airport came at 4:30 am. Well, at least that ensured that Glen would be here for the call. We have received word that he arrived safely and is now serving in a town called Amite. Tomorrow (Monday) is his p-day, so we'll get more info then.

I put his address (which you can find at the sidebar) into mapquest and found out he is currently 67 miles from where I lived when I joined the church. That's like from here to Reno--(the Reno temple is 76 miles from my home). The mission home in Baton Rouge is 68 miles from my old home. I love mapquest. I'll be checking it every transfer, I'm sure.

Well, it took 2 weeks, but I think I was back to my old self again on Friday--I was actually motivated and got some things done and I had some energy.

Three weeks of school left. Glen and Hannah have plenty to do. Alex, being in 6th grade, is just the same as always. But we're all anxious for summer vacation to arrive.

they picked the perfect date and other family news

OK, I forgot to use this when I posted about the wedding, so even though the wedding already has a post, I'm using this anyway:

From the movie Miss Congeniality:

William Shatner's character: Describe your perfect date.

Miss Rhode Island: That's a tough one. I'd have to say April 25th. Because it's not too hot and not too cold. All you need is a light jacket.


And it wasn't too hot and it wasn't too cold, though it was a bit breezy. But the sun was shining and it was a glorious day--April 25th, 2013 in the Salt Lake Temple.


Phew. OK.

Though not as busy as the previous few weeks, there was a lot happening this week. And I'm still tired. My brain is already on summer vacation and we still have 4 weeks of school left.

But we got a great email from Ryan on Tuesday. He's bumped into a lot of people he knows from BYU-I. His companion is Elder Barker from Idaho and they are the Zone Leaders. He says they get along great and their weaknesses and strengths compliment each other and that they were definitely meant to be companions. He says he is learning lots and loves being there. They are typical teens, however, as he says they get along too well and easily get distracted during study time. Having been in the MTC myself, I know all about that.

flashback--March 1984--Elder Brailsford from my MTC district performing "The Shark" comedy sketch. I don't remember anything about it except laughing very hard:

Ryan did not call today for Mother's Day for 2 reasons (I think)--first reason is there aren't too many phones in the MTC, so having all those missionaries call home would be an impossibility. Second reason is that I should get a call on Tuesday from the airport when Ryan will fly to Baton Rouge (with about 14 other missionaries). Soon after that we will get in the mail a photo of him with Pres. and Sis. Wall. On the mission website it shows current assignments http://www.louisianabatonrougemission.org/our-missionaries. I wonder if it'll get updated so I know where Ryan will be before the letter or an email comes.

We did get a call from Eric, though. Sounds like he's doing great. We asked if he's bumped into any famous LDS people so far...the first thing he tells us is that The Piano Guys were at Deseret Book (just south of Temple Square) and one Elder went there and had them sign a CD. But the Elder wasn't Eric, so he hasn't met The Piano Guys. Too funny. (by the way, we LOVE The Piano Guys--5 dads from Utah who use the piano and the cello--here is a link to a page with their video links)

Eric did say that Lloyd D. Newell  (the Music and the Spoken Word announcer) did put his hand on Eric's shoulder while he was going around greeting people. Well, he still has just over 1 1/2 years to bump into someone famous.

Also talked to Andrew. They had an open house at a park in Provo last night. They were afraid no one would come, but luckily they were wrong. An old friend of Glen's even showed up hoping Glen would be there (but we stayed in Fallon--Glen's student's had a play this weekend). The newlyweds are settling in and attended their brand new ward today. I asked Andrew if he'd met any of his neighbors yet. Yes, he has and apparently the neighbor across the hall is named Andy Perez. Thought it was funny.


OK, this brain dead girl is heading to bed, but first I want to say thanks to all the wonderful women in my life who have had such an impact on me and my life. My daughter, my mom, my sister, my mother-in-law, my sisters-in-law, my nieces, my friends, and now my daughter-in-law...so many have been such a great example to me of womanhood and motherhood. You don't need to have children to deserve honor on this day. We all have a sphere of influence. Thanks, ladies, for being such a great influence in my life. And thanks guys for cooking for us today. It was delicious.

Reception, my nephew Jake, and the first news from Ryan

After a busy, wonderful week, I think life is about to slow down a bit.

Thursday after school we drove to my sister's house in Vegas and spent the night. We were up and out fairly early on Friday and made it to Mesa in the early afternoon. Our hotel (Comfort Inn) was one block down from the Mesa temple, so we spent a few minutes walking the temple grounds.

Hannah and Alex had been amazed at the giant cacti on our trip, so when we found some on the temple grounds, they wanted their photo taken there (the temple's in the background):

The reception that evening was actually fun. Seeing as how Glen and I find it painful to try and talk to people we don't know, I was surprised by that fact. I guess, though, having something to talk about (Heather and Andrew) made it all OK. Plus Heather's family is really nice, so we had a great time.

This time the frosting stayed on the cake.

Hannah, second from the left, did not catch the bouquet, thankfully.

Heather's mother, Joylene, had us use sparklers to usher the newlyweds out

She looks like a fairy godmother granting a wish (a blessing to the new couple?)

the gorgeous Salt Lake Temple quilt that Joylene hand quilted for Heather and Andrew

The next morning we drove back to Vegas to my sister's house. I really like the drive between Phoenix and Henderson...much more interesting than Vegas to Fallon and the roads are often divided with 2 lanes instead of just one.

That evening, Glen and I were able to attend the temple when our nephew received his own endowment. Jake, who was one of Ryan's roommates last semester at BYU-I, is leaving in 17 days to serve a mission in Manila, Philippines. Super cool--that's the 3rd own endowment we have attended in the last 15 days (Ryan's, Heather's, and now Jake's). There's nothing better.

Denise, Jake, and Pat at the Las Vegas Temple

me, Jake, and Glen

Our first letter from Ryan arrived while we were gone. His companion is Elder Barker from south-eastern Idaho. Elder Barker is also going to the Louisiana Baton Rouge Mission. Most in Ryan's MTC district are going to Wisconsin, but a few are heading to Louisiana with Ryan. I wish he had told us what day his P-day is as we don't know what day to expect an email.

But he sounds as if all was well the first day. We are so excited for him.

Elder Ryan Perazzo

Ryan was set apart as a missionary on Monday evening by our Stake President, Pres. Egbert. Besides Pres. Egbert and Glen, 1 grandpa, 3 uncles, 1 cousin, and Bishop Wadsworth joined in the circle. Other family members (like grandma) were in attendance.

those aren't peace signs but the # 2 as he'll be gone for 2 years

Before going to the MTC, we took in a session at the Salt Lake Temple with Aunt Carey and Aunt Teresa

Andrew and Heather's apartment is a stone's throw from the MTC, so we stopped in to say good-bye to Andrew. Heather was at work, so we didn't get to see her.

And off he goes. I had tears in my eyes as soon as we turned into the MTC driveway. When I left Ryan, his host--whose name I didn't catch but he's going to Argentina--told me the MTC was the happiest place on earth (in response to my tears, I'm sure).

Words cannot describe...