MTC Drop

Back in the day, when you took a missionary to the MTC everybody went in through the big lobby they have and into a large auditorium style room. If you were early, you had time to chat before the meeting started. Then, there was a lot of speaking going on and a video. The meeting lasted about an hour. I did this kind of missionary drop off a few times with nephews and nieces who left on missions. It's all different now.

We heard all about the new MTC drop off system and I envisioned something akin to dropping off a person at the airport. There are the similarities, you drive up, pull up to the curb, drop the person off and then leave. The airport could learn a thing or two from the MTC though. The differences are these, first off they mail you information on showing up and what time you're to be there. (If the airport did it like this, they might not have such crowds and long lines.) A-D this time, E-G that time, and so on. Our time was 1:15. They also mail you an auto pass to put on the dashboard as you're allowed only one vehicle so if you have a lot of family that want to go, better rent a big van!

As you drive in, there are volunteers in yellow vests or jackets to show you what to do and where to go. There was a first one asking us if we were dropping off a missionary and directing us to follow these two up ahead. There was one for each lane and they seemed to be directing all traffic to the left. As we drove along there were volunteers in their yellow jackets every few car lengths to tell you to keep going or to pull up to the curb. There were sign posts all along the curb, a generous car length apart, numbered 1 - 22 or so. Our post was #9.

Here is where it gets back to being like the airport... everyone jumps out, pulls out the luggage, hugs the traveler (missionary) goodbye and the traveler goes into the building and the driver and any other passengers hop back in the car and leave. But unlike the airport, there are a bunch of young men along the entire length of curb all dressed up so fine who wave and are welcoming and ready to help. One of them will even help your traveler/missionary get to the correct place inside the building and helps him carry his luggage... free!

I Want To Be A Missionary

It's official. Just a few minutes before these photos James was set apart to be a missionary in the Korea Busan Mission. Elder Moseley with President Metcalf.
Elder Moseley with Grandma & Grandpa Moseley
Elder Moseley with sisters Hillary and Sonia.

Roxanne had to work at her fabulous new job at VECC.
Elder Moseley with me and Richard.

Early Christmas

December 13, 2009 was a very busy day for the Moseley clan. The day began with everyone stopping by with soups to plug in and keep warm during church. That Sunday was the day James gave his 'farewell' talk in Sacrament Meeting. Extended family and several friends came to the meeting and later, to our home to visit and enjoy all the fabulous soup.

Once we were down to just our zany family, we began the celebrations. While we gathered, everyone stopped for some more soup and cookies. This day was Hillary's birthday (29th I'm sure!) as well as Grandma and Grandpa Moseley's wedding anniversary. They bugged out right after church tho. Since our Christmas party was on her birthday this year, most of Hillary's birthday and Christmas gifts were combined. We got her a nursing manual... maybe I should have checked it out for age appropriateness. For her Christmas, we gave Hillary and Marc some food storage that they get to pick out themselves (ok, it was a gift card to Smith's grocery store).

The girls all received lots of things they loved, including the quilts I made for Natasha and Emma. (We gave Samantha and Adelyn shoes... they get quilts next year.) One of Samantha's favorite gifts was a box full of Nerf type guns. I remember one of Sonia's favorite toys being a He-Man action figure when she was little.

Shawn received a nice bicycle lock from James and Sonia is always happy with anything from Vickie's (Victoria's Secret).

James received a few things to help him as a missionary. The turban on his head is really one of the plain shirts for P-day/exercise wear. His favorite gift was probably the Ipod speaker dock Hillary got him and hopefully one day he'll appreciate the condensed family history book he received.

Richard received some much needed slippers and this cool gun/rifle cleaning kit. I've never seen one as nice as this with it's case and all and I'm sure all the weapons need a good cleaning.

James is good. He was making bread one day (which made Hillary totally jealous that her little brother could make bread) and I was mentioning how I needed a new good rolling pin because although still functional, mine had its handles falling off. He remembered and scouted out a new one for me for Christmas so here I am being goofy and acting like I'm some bad dude spinning the thing on my knee. Whaa-shaaw!

We've been trying to find a good time to get everyone together for a family photo for awhile now and it just wasn't happening. Thanks to Sonia, we did get this family photo on our Christmas day but not before the kids had their silly stunt photos!

We all had a very Merry Christmas day and hope that all our of family and friends had a Merry Christmas too... whatever day they celebrated it on. After all, we should really have that Christmas spirit every day of the year.

Solar Panels or Bust!

Not long after James returned from AIT, he started going up to our property with dad. His friend and fellow soldier, Private Hemsley, went with them the first time. They put in all those bolt thingees you see in the picture.

Then on the second trip, the rails were attached and bolted in. This was all quite the project because this is a very steep roof on the shed. They also had more bolt things to put up. If I remember right, it took two trips to get all the rails up.

Then came the panels. Fortunately dad was able to take a couple days off of work while it was good weather. The solar panels took two days to get them all up, bolted to the rails, and wired into the electrical box that will run the solar pump down in the well.

After all this work, the pay-off was that when everything was bolted and clamped down, taped and screwed and the switch flipped, it worked and watered flowed at about 4 gallons/minute. Not bad for solar panels that hadn't seen the sun until they were brought out of their box and put on the roof.

Some of the funniest stories came out of the little Country Store in Fruitland. There is a little lady, Charlotte, that runs it. The Country Store also has tables and chairs if you'd like to sit and get a bit of lunch. Charlotte will come take your order and another gal makes it. Charlotte is so funny tho. She has quite a dry sense of humor and the best poker face around. She really likes people to enjoy their food and eat it all. Once James didn't eat all of his fries and she drilled him on why. Another time Leland ordered a very large meal and Charlotte told him he was too little to eat all that. She was right and she didn't let him live it down the next time he ate there... said she was gonna have to babysit him! She's quite a hoot.

I Love The Temple!

On October 17th, we went with James to the temple to take out his own endowments. He absolutely loved it and ever since has gone to the temple every day possible and has been to six of the 14 temples in Utah. Some are pretty far away but mostly he loves going to the Salt Lake Temple. He says he prefers the live session but I wonder if it isn't getting 'roped' into multiple sealing sessions. Last Saturday he spent 3 hours helping out at the Salt Lake Temple and loved every minute.Jamie came with us, taking the opportunity to go to the temple so she played taxi for grandma and grandpa. It was fun to have her along. We all went to dinner afterwards at the Village Inn across the street from the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. One of our friends is manager there and he enjoyed seeing our family... especially IN his restaurant!

Just a few days later, Richard needed to make a trip to St. George for work. James rode along and they went to the St. George temple. They were going to go to the Manti temple on the way back but discovered it was closed for cleaning. They went to the Mount Timpanogos temple instead.

They also went to the main cemetery in St George and found Paul's grave. Grandma and Grandpa have plots right by their son.

AIT

On October 7th we flew out to Misery for James' Family Day and Graduation from his Advanced Individual Training. The weather was nice getting there but then it rained the whole time. I'm not talking sprinkling rain or even steady rain... it was a downpour the whole time. Fortunately the rain let up to a light rain for our drive back to the airport from the base on Friday.

Since it was raining so much on Family Day (Oct 8), we didn't get to do much. We spent some time at the USO on base where they had ping pong, pool tables, snacks, tvs, and computers.

During one point the rain let up a little so we drove over to see James' barracks (from the outside only) and he grabbed some cool shirts he bought to show us.October 9, Graduation Day... finding James in this crowd is like finding Waldo!

James has been pinned by this Drill Sergeant. Notice that nice shiny new Engineer pin on his collar!Sonia and Hillary flew out for Graduation Day. They loved on brother for a few minutes and then were off in their rented convertible for fun in St. Louey! James, dad and I flew home after the graduation. It was so nice to be home out of the rain!!

My Stripling Warrior

My friend, Donna, sent me a link to some new posters (http://www.realheroposters.com/) of Book of Mormon heroes and it reminded me of so long ago when I hung up the pictures of Captain Moroni and the 2000 Stripling Warriors in James' room with an accompanying scripture (Alma 48:17). Posters have come and gone (like Green Day and skater stuff) but these have stayed.

Then today we got this picture in the mail from the branch along with a form letter of info. (Your heart kind of jumps when you get an envelope with the return address of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!) The letter led me to graduation info (October 9th, just like James said) and generally telling families what time church is for the soldiers and stuff like that so you kind of feel like you know what's going on . Today was James' 1st day of actual training and as excited as he's been to start training, he's more excited to be done with it and go on a mission. He has been able to call home a few times and tell us how wonderful it is to use the Priesthood. Needless to say, I'm one proud mamma!

Let's party some more!

I guess the family party wasn't enough... Sonia and James planned another dinner at Magic Wok for Tuesday night. We had a nice big table back by the kitchen which was a bit noisy but warmer than the front of the restaurant which was freezy! We have a tradition handed down to us from the Moseley grandparents... when you read your fortune out of the cookie, you add "in bed" to the end. That usually turns even the lamest of fortunes into funny ones. I think James has quite the Sly Stallone look going on here with the game peg in his eye. We always enjoy that little peg game where you try to get all but one peg off the game board.

The next evening James reported to the airport Radisson. The latest he was to check in was 1800 hours (6pm). Richard/Dad and I took James out to Sizzler first. Our original plan was to take him to Magic Wok or maybe the new Sakara restaurant but we'd all pretty well had our fill of oriental food. James had made sukiyaki style tofu for about a week and he had Magic Wok a few times too so steak was a nice change. James and dad both had steak and all you can eat shrimp with salad bars and strawberry lemonade. I had just the salad bar and then two skewers of broiled shrimp. It was very good, just enough and a nice change from the usual bacon wrapped steak & potato I usually succumb to.

We left the restaurant just after 5 and had plenty of time to arrive early at the Radisson. About two blocks away James remembered he needed shaving cream so I quick pulled into the Sutherlands parking lot and we headed for the Albertson's on 9th west. James ran in and back out so fast I would have wondered if he'd paid for his can of shaving cream if I hadn't seen the receipt in his hand too! We were back on the road and were still 20 minutes early. It was good timing too because 'Private Hemsley' was just finishing up his check-in. His folks were there and both James and Pvt. H. seemed glad to have a pal to go on this adventure with. Then it was hugs all around and a quick exit so dad could get back to his conference. I forgot to mention that... dad had a Haz-Mat conference all this week and had to sneak out to see James off. It was nice that dad had a couple hours at home so he and James went plinking out in the backyard with James' new airsoft rifle.

James called from the USO room in the St. Louis airport on Thursday and then again today from Fort Leonard Wood. He seemed excited that they will probably start training this next Tuesday. I'm glad he has a few days to acclimate to the wake up early and go to bed early gig before the real training starts.

Elder Moseley

We had planned a family party for yesterday to celebrate a few birthdays. We always have dinner, presents, cake and ice cream and a whole lot of fun (as seen below in pictures). Saturday I went shopping for the dinner items I needed and came back to a message from the stake executive secretary. He'd called for my husband who was working late but I had this feeling I should call him back so I did. To my surprise, he said that our son James' paper to receive the Melchizedek priesthood was going before the High Council in the morning and that if he was approved, he would meet with the stake president and most likely be ordained that next day. I didn't think this would happen until October and with such short notice, it was a blessing that everyone was coming already! James was approved, the meeting with the stake president went well (he even said he'd 'push the button' on the mission papers) and the ordination time was set. The wonderful High Councilor assigned to see this was done agreed to come back at 5pm to do the ordination. I just had to tell our family members who were already coming at 5pm to meet at our stake center instead of at our house. What a crazy wonderful weekend!

Everyone enjoyed the salsa and chips I put out as an appetizer. Thanks cousin Joann for such yummy salsa!!

You can see how much fun we have... it's all over Adelyn's dress!

It's rare to get our precious grandparents out for these family parties. It's just too much commotion for them but they do love the kids.

Ward Camp 2009

To prepare for ward camp, I went and purchased a new bottle of OFF. With the mosquitos being worse this year, and our camp being near a river, I certainly wasn't going without the bug spray. I also purchased a new tube of sunscreen and one of those bottles of spray sunscreen. I'm totally sold on those now. They are way easier than trying to find every nook and cranny in your skin. Not one of us had any sunburns at all... not even a pink spot.

Camp was nice as usual. You get to visit with people who aren't trying to get to class, get home, or whatever like on Sunday. One cute little boy got scared of all the aliens flying around. I think someone spoiled it and told him they were just big moths. I'm glad dad captured a picture of Dalton with his 'alien'.

The Primary President is married to the Activities Committee Chair... a position she held with him (as co-chair) until her calling to Primary (then as a counselor). She's really fun and has a lot of crazy activities and games up her sleeve. She got all the youth involved in this game where you mound up a bunch of flour and then put a quarter on top. The object of the game is to slice away some of the flour without letting the quarter drop down into the flour. If the quarter does fall, you have to fish it out with your teeth, thus making the player get a face and mouth full of flour. I couldn't believe the youth went for this but they were all pretty good sports and it ended in a flour fight. Everyone but James was covered in flour. James kicked butt in this game and never had the quarter fall on his turn. He was delighted with his skill and watching everyone else have to do the face plant!

After breakfast the next morning, all the youth played frisbee and tossed a football around... both at the same time. James and I are of the same mind and we get up, get packed and ready to go before breakfast. We left camp fairly early to we could stop by my quilt class so I could show off my block and get my next one. I haven't been in 4 months now. Maybe next time I'll be able to stay for the class.

Thar be cement in them thar hills!

Flowing water to follow, probably by the end of the summer. However, that doesn't mean a bathroom. This last Friday we met (and paid) three groups of men up at 'the property'. The first group were dirt diggers and movers. The second group were cement layers and finishers. The third was in a group by himself... he was the cement truck driver.

During the week, the cement guys had laid out the forms in the places we wanted. The dirt guys came early on friday to build up the dirt so that the leveled forms wouldn't have cement running out from the bottom. We got their while this was happening so James pitched right in with our rake and helped get the job done. Just in time too. The cement guys came about 10am and laid out the rebar to strenghten the cement then the cement truck arrived about 10:30am.

All the men were really nice, hard-working fellows. The older gentleman on the cement crew sure looked familiar to me (like maybe he was someone I met through my dads connections). His cousin captured our funny bones. This fellow was so fun and looked like he should be on one of those cowboy greeting cards. He told us funny stories like this one: "Dang it's hot in Missouri. Why it was so hot the corn started popping right off the cobs. So much corn popped all the cows thought it was snowing and do you know them cows laid down and froze to death!"

I took the opportunity to take some pictures of things I wanted. When I was out to the property after our family camp, I was looking for the birdhouse and birdfeeder that Natasha and Emma painted. James had hung them up just before we left that day and I didn't get a chance to take pictures. I hadn't been able to find them both for some reason and we'd been pressed for time. Friday I found them both. I'm not sure there are birds small enough out there to make a home out of this one, or the ceder one I'd bought but they sure did empty the bird feeder. Now that I know where everything is, I'll have to get more bird seed and fill them up.

I also took pictures of the trench that was dug. Part of the dirt groups job was to dig this trench from the well to the tank pad. We had three cement pads poured: shed pad, water tank pad, and a trailer pad for the trailer we hope to have someday. The distance from the well to the tank pad is about 210 feet. When I thought of a trench to lay pipe, I was thinking more of the type you'd dig through your yard to put in PVC. This thing is more like a war zone trench. It's certainly big enough to fit nice young soldiers in... just see exibit A where my soldier is in the trench. James was carefully chipping the cement casing away from the well so we can drill a hole for a pitless adapter. It's some dad-gummed thing we have to have to get water out of it and into pipes below ground level so everything doesn't just freeze and break.