The Sweetest Thing

Tyler and I took a whirlwind trip this past weekend—we flew out to Cali to hear my brother give his farewell talk and to be there with him and my family as he was set apart as a full time missionary for the LDS church. Eric will be serving in the Chile Concepción mission. He reports to the MTC tomorrow and will be gone for two years—my heart is aching.

I have always been very proud of my baby brother—all of us have—but I was never so proud of him than I was on Sunday as I sat with my husband, mom, gramma, and sisters listening to him speak. Suddenly I understood why the Lord calls 19 year old boys to serve and teach the gospel. I sat there and it occurred to me that Eric was no longer a baby or a goofy, moody, teenager—no, he had become a polished, refined young man.

Since it was Father’s Day Eric spoke about his Dad and his Heavenly Father. It was a touching and well planned address. As Eric spoke I watched my Dad seated on the stand and thought ‘what better Father’s Day gift could he have gotten?’ What a compliment to my Dad and Mom to have raised such an amazing kid.

And so now comes the hard part—the goodbyes—how do you say goodbye for two whole years? I am sure some heart ache will be involved and a lot of crying—my family is genetically incapable of not crying. It is a bittersweet feeling—so much happiness and sadness at the same time.

Eric, we are so proud of you and love you so much! You will be in all of our thoughts and prayers.

Elder Kuykendall, there is no doubt in my mind that you will be an amazing missionary!

Oh Summer Where Have You Gone?

I love the summer. I have endured months of snow and cold and anxiously waited for the best season of the year.

Now that it’s finally here, it seems as if something is missing. Perhaps it is that Tyler is in his 10^th consecutive month of school—with 6 months still to go. Perhaps it is that I will not be going home for a visit this year. Or maybe it’s because the weather is still confused about which month it is—I really don’t know.

Whatever it is, I am sad to say, instead of my days being packed to the bursting point with fun activities in the warm sun I find the days slowly creeping by, one day just as boring as the last.

This is going to be a long, strange summer. There is something different this year—don’t know quite what it is yet. All I can do is just continuing hoping and praying that the real summer will start soon. I dream of summers past—no responsibilities, nothing to do but lay out and soak up the sun. Will summer ever be like that again?

Warning: May cause slight discomfort, pain, swelling, or redness

Two months have come and gone since my last post so here’s what you have missed in that time: Uh…well…hmm…

Yep, I’ve got nothing. Sometimes I am utterly astounded by how boring our lives are—every week is exactly like the last.

So yesterday, in an effort to break away from my normal routine, I tried something new. Instead of just running my standard 40 minutes at the gym and calling it good, I tried out a class. I have never attempted a class at the gym before for fear that I would not be able to keep up, feel stupid, and mostly because I knew I would look like an idiot—I experienced all this and more.

I attended an hour long power pump class—it’s like weight lifting/resistance training set to music kind of like aerobics—which, ps I will never try—defiantly not coordinated enough to do that! I awkwardly watched each of the class members as they prepared for the class collecting weights, dumbbells, mats, aerobic steps and exercise balls and I did the same.

Within the first 10 minutes of class I knew I was in trouble—I was so exhausted from the warm up my legs had ceased to function properly. I pooped out on the 4 reps of 20 legs lifts after the first rep, made it three-quarters of the way through the lunges, and half way through squats—and that was without the weights! By the time we moved on to the upper body my legs were ready to give out. Balancing on a ball we worked our abs, backs, arms and upper body, I had such a hard time balancing on ball (because my legs no longer had feeling) that I had to wimp out and sit on the aerobic step to complete the arms portion of the class.

The last 10 minutes of the class was dedicated to just abs and that’s when I gave up. My arms, legs, and back could no longer support my weight; I not could risk EVERY single muscle in my body being so sore I wouldn’t be able to climb out of bed in the morning—wise choice. Even so, Man, am I sore today! The simply act of just sitting at my desk puts enough pressure on my buttocks and hip to make them cramp up—ouch!

So will I ever go back? Probably—I like the challenge. It’s a good thing, though, the next class isn’t until Tuesday, that should give me enough to recover before I embark on my next “What was I thinking??! I look like idiot! I can’t keep up! Never have I felt this much pain!!” Adventure.

A New Adventure

After all of the waiting the day has finally come—Tyler’s first day at school—as a flight instructor of course! Tomorrow Tyler will meet with his first student (whose name, strangely enough, also happens to be Tyler).

Yesterday Tyler took me down to the UVU hanger at the Provo airport to show me the plane he will be instructing in.

He also showed off his neat cubby and cubical in the instructor's office. He even tried in his new uniform so I could get the whole effect.

Doesn’t he look adorable? He is so nervous but I know that he will do a fantastic job.

Good luck babe!

A Visit With the Family Circus

Being married can make splitting up the holidays hard; luckily for Tyler and me we were able to see both our families this year. We spend Christmas with the Crowthers and New Years with the Kuykendall/Hofheins clan.

My Family made the long, cold, icy trek from the beautiful land of CA to bring the Phyllis out to BYU. There were about 12 people and two dogs staying overnight at Grandma’s. During the day the house swelled to 22 people and 3 dogs! I managed to convince my baby brother stay at my house—due to a slight shortage of space.

New Years Eve T and E spent a day out on the slopes doing some manly bonding

News Years Day my aunts, cousins, sisters, mom, and I all went shopping (that’s 10 women all together). My boys (dad, brother, Tyler) said that they couldn’t take all of the estrogen and ditched—I am not really sure what they did while all the girls were shopping—maybe I don’t want to know.

It was so much fun having all of the family together. My parents and brother said their goodbyes Saturday—that always the worst part of visiting with loved ones—the goodbyes. It’s not so bad, though, we should be seeing them again in the not too distant future when they bring the man child out to the MTC—that will be a sad goodbye. For now I send them my love; I miss you guys! But, what I really missed the most is CA—when will the snow stop falling?!