Friday night, 17 March 2011

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Saw lots of green today. Last Monday morning we woke up to 4 inches of snow. Today the temperature was 78'. Try and figure that one out. Cost Dad $50 to fill the Camry with gas. Boxes are everywhere taped up. Suitcases ready to put in.

WE ARE COMING HOME!!!!!

See you soon.

More random pics. What would our mission be without telling you about Sister Gray. She is a sweet little lady who lives across the street, and she wanders into the office occasionally. We always hope that it is the end of the day, because she tends to stay for a long time! Today we were able to turn the lights out after about 15 minutes. She repeats herself over and over and over and it is hard to converse with her because she is aways repeating. But we love her. She takes all our empty Tootsie Roll and Red Licorice or any other plastic containers we have, home with her. I can't imagine what she does with all of them. Kind of scary to think about!

Last Sunday we were invited to the Gilmore's. This is Chuck's family in St. Joseph. This is Ann Gilmore, his Mom. She had quite a group over since she was serving Ruebens. Says that only happens about once a year. They were good. It was good to be in their home. There have been several missionaries who have mentioned the Gilmore's and our connection. They are good to the missionaries in their area.

Chuck's brother, Mike and his wife and kids were there.

Dad with Chuck's dad, Chet. How has he managed to keep so much hair on his head!

This is Chuck's sister, Chris and her husband Ed. Chris is so much like her mother it is crazy. They even sound the same when they laugh.

And I think this is little brother, Rick. I was shocked when I saw Rick. We met Rick when he was a teen or early 20's and he is all grown up and has grayed in the process. Has a 3 year old and when he picks him up from school, they tell the boy his grandpa is here to get him. He is not real crazy about that.

This is the Amish grocery store where I get the tiny animal crackers. Very unique, but so clean and organized and orderly. No fresh stuff though. These are jams and sauces that they have made.

More Amish groceries and these are mostly dried items. They are very self sustaining.

The price of gas at the QT and it just keeps inching up. Went from $2.99 to this in about 3 days.

We are being held hostage by the oil companies.

A cute little shop close to Liberty Jail. Does anyone know what a cooper is?

Our favorite Sisters at the time. You have met Sister Cleveland on the left and Sister Crapo is on the right. She has such a sense of humor. When she first came out, she made fun of her name and said she didn't care what we called her. But you say it Cray-po. She is from our area. Went to Olympus and know the Viets in our ward. They were at dinner the other night and discovered that Sister Crapo is friends with one of the Viet boys and Sister Cleveland dated that boy a few times. They were crazy nutty as they made this connection. We laughed a lot. They love each other so much and have had quite the experiences together.

Sister Bouy, Sister Crapo and me.

Me, Sister Cleveland and Sister Bouy.

Picture this! I come home from the grocery store and empty one of the bags and at the bottom of the bag I find THIS!

Do you see what I see?! Crunch and Clean tidbits to clean your cat's teeth. I could not believe it. At first I thought it was one of those free offers that you sometimes get at the grocery store, but I really think that the bagger forgot to put it in the last person's bag. He was probably as disgusted as I was. Got home and his Crunch and Clean was not there.

I have been cleaning and packing today. My last Saturday in the mission. Can't quite believe it but WE ARE SO EXCITED to come home. It is days now. Soon to be hours.

Love, hugs, kisses.