I need to document some things (and one really huge thing) before I start documenting the millions of pictures that we just took on our Spring Break trip to Panama.

Children's museum with these ladies

Birthday boy= He's an adult!!!

Senior trip. Elijah and some of his gapped buddies (including a father) took a weekend d trip to Cali.

Claire cheering on her team. This pic was posted to the school's social media page:

Iris and her friends special-ordered hoodies with the names of the celebrities they think are cute:

And the BIG news is that Elijah got his mission call!

Here are a few of the people who were on the Zoom call when opened it:

We did a guessing game of where we thought he would go. There were over 50 guesses. 2 people guessed correct! One was his favorite mother--ME! And the other was Claire, but she doesn't count bc she guessed twice and was probably just following my lead.

 He's going to Puerto Rico on August 19th, which is a special date for us because it will be the 3rd anniversary of Abuela's passing.

A few more pictures from Arizona. Elijah and Ezra. Ezra was Elijah's noble disciple for a while:

Leah made skirts for the Udall women from fabric 

that one of our good friends Muzinga brought from Africa.

A week or 2 ago, we were reading family scriptures and I had a thought of that iconic scene from the movie "Rocky" come to my mind. The one where he runs to the top of a huge set of stairs and then jumps up and down in all his glory. It made me think of my recently run marathon. At the end, right after I crossed the line, I went to the side of the road, sat, and put my head between my knees while I hyperventilated and cried. Sometimes when we go through hard things, we can't dance and revel in our conquer. It's ok to hyperventilate and falter as long as we are looking up, "thinking celestial," as Pres Nelson said. Sometimes the revelry doesn't come until the next life.

We also got to visit our good friend Olivia! I wrote about her a few posts ago. Can't believe she's in my family's ward now = not a coincidence. 

Valentines Day celebrations:

Iris hosted a Galetines day

the ladies made a smash cake with pictures of their favorite famous men

Sybil's first valentine. They exchanged gifts and jumped on the trampoline. 

She told me I couldn't take any more pictures. I enjoy reading their texts. It's pretty dang hilarious. He sent a video of his swordfighting skills. And we made Sybil ask him if he had a job or job prospects.

Claire got a whole week off for Mardi Gras and was living it large in New Orleans:

Starting Lent on Valentines Day was challenging. 

I was planning to give up desserts, but have already decided that I'm not Catholic enough for Lent.

Odds and ends

I know this is from almost a million years ago, but I've gotta add these pics. On the night of my birthday, I made the non-vegetarian kids try raw fish. Elijah loves poke, so had no problem. Sybil regurgitated and ate her sushi several times. Iris contemplating her sacrifice:

Sybil got braces on her bottom teeth. Within a few days, she had pulled most of the brackets off her teeth, so back into the chair she went:

Elijah getting a facial, which I'm pretty sure is what has been going on for the past hour. 

They are both in Sybil's room and she keeps sprinting out for supplies.

Sybil and Mila hot-tubbing in the rainy winter. Even since Mila moved out, these two remain BFFs.

At LSMSA, the week after Christmas break is Special Projects week. When I went there, I did fencing (which actually turned into me teaching soccer since the fencing teacher had a death in the family and had to travel. I did Habitat for Humanity my senior year. Claire chose golfing:

We traveled to St George for the Red Cliffs Temple Open house where 

Jon was able to give a small group a private tour.

Iris at her violin recital:

Sybil's friends have been receiving the missionary discussions at our house:

We took a quick trip to BYU so Iris could attend a 1-day writing camp 

where one of her favorite authors, Brandon Mull, presented.

David, Sybil and I hung out and hiked the Y:

Hiking with family:

And then there's the marathon. My sister said a year ago that she wanted to run her first marathon. I, who vowed never to run another one, said I'd be a supportive sister and run with her. Then I roped my younger sister into joining us. My brother even said he'd join. But the jaws of hell opened the week before. Alexis gat a stress fracture, Hunt got in a pretty serious bike accident, and I would up here for a heart arrythmia that I've had for several years, but got a little more scary:

My troponin was high, but I was cleared to run after it started coming down.

Right before we drove down for the marathon, we celebrated 55 years since Hector came to USA. 

Every year we go to Burger King to commemorate "the best meal he had ever eaten" as a 14 year old Cuban.

The marathoners before:

Marathoners and half-marathoners after:

Iris, Esie, and my mom all walked the half together.

And the biggest news of all! 

With a whole lot of brush and water gymnastics, we parted Elijah's hair!

His mission papers were submitted on Valentines day.

 

A few things

Last night I was a bit stressed because it had been a hectic day: 15.5 mile run, drop Elijah's car off to be fixed, drop Elijah and Iris at the gym, Sybil's soccer game, last-minute call to join the missionaries at a lesson, pick up Iris from Barnes and Noble. When I finally had a few moments to study for my pharmacology test, I got a call from friend who was in the hospital. I got home with about 5 minutes to change into church clothes and make it to a women's conference. I sat behind someone who is going through something really hard and when a song with the line "with all of your light, pierce through the darkness" was sung, I watched this woman get emotional and then her neighbor put her arm around her. In that moment, my struggles seemed trivial.

A few weeks ago, I had the goal to have special moments with all of the kids and then to write them down. 

Iris: skipped the bus so we could talk about her goals.

Elijah: I made him a parfait. 

Sybil told me the meaning of "murmur" which she learned from Scripture Scouts. 

Mila waited in the car with me at soccer practice. I studied while she wrote a story, read it to me excitedly, and when we got home, I taught her how to make mac and cheese from a box. 

    Although Mila isn't my kid, she started to hang out with us a lot more over the past semester. She said her mom often told her that I was like her mom. 

After about 21 months, they moved out of our house on my birthday. It has been bittersweet. Mila has come over both of the Fridays since then. She got in the car one of the Fridays and was so excited to tell me that she got a 50% on her spelling test--this is a drastic improvement for her.

Last week I submitted my application for NP school. 

I also started more consistently volunteering at a low-income clinic downtown.

This is me, unsuccessfully  trying to record vital signs during a fire alarm evacuation from work:

 Reading the Book of Mormon as a family this year has brought up a lot of memories of my mission. As we work on Elijah's mission papers, I more readily share those stories. We also talked about how each of us have developed our testimonies of the BoM. 

David took the kids to the temple a few weekends ago during one of my long runs:

A woman I visit taught several years ago invited me to her son's baptism. I was unable to go since it was in AZ. We have been friends through a lot of hard things in her life and a lot of wonderful things like her wedding and the baptism of her husband. The day of her son's baptism, my mom sent me a text, "Didn't a girl named Olivia and her son live with you for a while?" She then told me that she had been at the baptism. My mom introduced herself as my mother. Olivia later wrote me, "When she told me, I burst into tears and I couldn't let go of hugging her. I feel like Heavenly Father made it possible." And then she wrote other really nice messages about how I had impacted her life. To me, this was a testament of the importance of the programs set up by church. I was assigned to be both her and her mother's ministering sister. I thought the assignment was because I could speak to her mom in Spanish, but it was really because of Olivia, who I met when she was a teenage mother. She and her son stayed with us. She had never been exposed to a loving, functional family. XOXO

 

Christmas: Part 5

Our last weekend in Nola was a bit chaotic. 

This happened to Elijah:

Of course he self-diagnosed (just like with his elbow about 3 weeks before).

The x-ray in the emergency room confirmed his suspicion that it wasn't broken.

Once again, he proclaimed himself a doctor and asked to be taken off our medical insurance.

These ladies had a girls' day, complete with a makeover by the makeup queen herself (Katie):

Saturday was supposed to be the Lord of the Rings marathon, but Elijah and I were in the ER and others took trips to Red, White, and Blue, and other places.

I was also in the hospital for a good part of the weekend with Abuelo, who had a nasty cold virus, but got back just in time to ring in the New Year:

Sybil was tortured into giving 2, simultaneous back massages. This girl just can't catch a break.

 A few more notable happenings: Sybil is, or should I say was, addicted to Flaming Hot Cheetos. We've had the unhealthy habit of sharing a bag every other week or so. She got a bag for Christmas that she refused to share with me. RETRIBUTION: She came out of the bathroom one day and said that her but hurt and that she was bleeding. Guess what, that wasn't blood, it was filming hot spices and the pain was spiciness exiting the anus. Poor girl is distraught that I have squashed her addiction cold-turkey.

Second, I run probably around 80-90 miles while I was there. Running along lake Pontchartrain is always my favirot because it's so relaxing (minus the signs that warn of alligator habitat) and at sea level. My 21 mile run was actually really good. I'v learned that my runs are so much better when I eat those power gummies that have amino acids and caffeine. I ran 20 miles again 2 days ago (mind you this was in Vegas with a much higher elevation and a lot more hills). My muscles haven't even been sore this time. On a spiritual parallel, we need to take our spiritual power pills. It makes no sense to run spiritual races without them. Why not make our lives easier by preparing for challenges because we know nobody escapes them.

And that's the end of Christmas!!! XOXO

Christmas: Part 4

 There is no better way to celebrate Christmas than with family pictures.

Claire said she wanted a picture with her legal guardian

Then we went caroling to family members (Aunt Ruthie):

George and MaryAlice and their family:

Macu, Daniel, and Abuelo

David and Macu have a fun relationship. 

The day after Christmas, GG&Pops took the high schoolers (and older) out to eat and to see Boys in the Boat. Claire had been anxiously awaiting to see this movie since it's about rowing.

The youngest group of kids went to to the trampoline park

and the middle-aged kids went to the mall.

The girls in their natural element:

The next day, we assembled lunches and brought them to homeless people in downtown Nola.

Then we went to the Milton Latter Library which is housed in a beautiful mansion that is over 100 years old on St Charles Street.

This is probably the only library with a room like this:

and this

The next day we got a private tour of the Chalmette battlefield.

and walked and raced around the National War Cemetery:

Some people thought it would be a good idea to ride on the hood of the car