Welcome Home, Sister Rietz

L - R -  Grandma and Grandpa Rietz, myself, Kristin, John, Amber, Grandma Sollenbarger and 1/2 of Trevor. (Sorry Trev)    And do you see the pink poster?  The Utah clan sent their good wishes!!  And yes, we left MANY sparkles in the airport. Luckily, we got out of there before anyone really noticed!! :)

There is a LOT to catch up on here on my blog, (nothing new there).   There is a trip to Scotland and England to report on, our Thanksgiving holiday in Utah, a shingles breakout, a broken wrist, and who knows what else. Despite being behind, I had to do a quick post about our newly returned sister missionary!!

Monday, the 30th of November, 7:40ish pm, Amber's plane (finally) came in to our little airport!  We got there early, (I demanded it!  What would be worse than getting home from your mission and not having anyone at the airport to meet you??), and of course, her plane was late!  But finally, it came, she was one of the first ones off the plane, and she's here!

She loved her mission in the California Rancho Cucamonga Mission.  She cried when she was released.  She is getting used to not having a schedule, praying for investigators and less-actives, and wearing regular clothes.  She misses her companions.  Although she hasn't said as much, I'm guessing she would love to be back in California, planning the day, spending her time sharing the gospel, and testifying of the Savior and His atonement.

But as all good things do, her time as a missionary came to an end, and its time to move on to bigger (maybe not better) things.  BYU-I is just around the corner.  Classes, dates and other social activities will soon replace the things she has been doing for the past 18 months.  It will all be good.  For now, she is enjoying spending time with her family, decorating for Christmas and catching up with all the happenings from the past 18 months that we forgot to write her about!!

We're so happy to welcome home our returned missionary!!

Over Half-way Through

Truly, I can't believe I am typing this, but Sister Rietz is over 1/2-way finished with her mission!  Wow!  That time has FLOWN by!!  She loves it, she is growing, she is maturing, it has been a great experience for her.  She has only been in two areas, and has fallen in love with both of them.  She has been involved in several baptisms, and has taught a lot of people, done a lot of service, and made life-long friends with her companions.  

I am a rookie missionary mom* and didn't know I was "supposed" to send her a 1/2-way package.  I only know this because I ran into another missionary mom and after I told her how long Amber has been out, she asked me if I sent the above mentioned package.  Well, of course I didn't!  She gave Pinterest all the credit for the box she sent her son - 1/2 a package of cookies, etc.  I'm just feeling a little bad that I missed the boat on that one!  I'll have to make it up to her in May with a 1-year package.  Luckily, Amber hasn't mentioned anything in her emails, so hopefully she doesn't feel too slighted, and will continue on working hard and loving missionary life. 

Rookie mom or not, I am still her mom, and can honestly say I wouldn't want her to be anywhere else.  She is so happy, and although she is learning that life can be hard, and that things don't always go the way you expect, she is also learning that the Lord listens to her prayers, and that the Holy Ghost will be with her if she is worthy, and will help her say the things her investigator needs to hear.  A small accident left her with stitches in her lower leg, and eventually a big scar, but that hasn't deterred her and in her own little humorous way said it was just a matter of time before she had to use the mission insurance!  (I second that.  It was an inevitable thing.)  She has a strong testimony of the Priesthood as she has had to exercise her faith in it through several bouts of illness.  And she knows the importance of OWE - Obedience with Exactness, something her dad reminds her of each week - and the blessings that can come from obedience.

So here's to the next nine months.  November will be here before we know it, but for now I am so happy to be a missionary mom and support my favorite missionary!  Keep up the good work, Sister Rietz!!

Proof that she is no sissy!  A souvenier from a district soccer game.

With Gideon-Moroni, her trusty bike.  She loves it, and wants to ship it home at the end of her mission.  

Showing a little attitude with Sister T.  (Both of them are from Idaho!)

Amber just got to speak at the baptism of these cute girls.  They are from her first area, but they wanted her to speak, so she got to go back.

*and just to cement my "Missionary Mom of the Year" award, it has really been over a week since her 1/2 point.  I am just getting around to getting this post written.  Sigh.  (I may just be hopeless at this.)

Sister Rietz - 5 months out!!

Clearly I am a rookie missionary mom, because this day marks Amber's 5 month mark, and I only thought it had been 4.  Maybe I'm not so much a rookie, as just a bad time tracker.  At any rate, it has been 5 months since she entered the MTC and almost 5 months since she got to California.

Amber and 2 other missionaries in her area had birthdays in the same week.  Here she shows her talent at Pin the tag on the Elder Game.  (I cannot get this picture to move.  Pretend it is further down the page)

Here is a brief summary of her mission, including a few pictures.

Amber has been in Hesperia, California since she left the MTC.  The town is on the edge of the Mojave Desert, and if you are paying attention, it has occurred to you that she has been there all summer.  And yes, her only transportation, aside from a few rare exceptions, has been her trusty bike.  I believe she calls it Gideon -Moroni, or something along those lines.  She and her companion put on about 40-50 miles a week.

I haven't heard much about them lately, but Amber did not have much appreciation of the famed "Joshua Trees" which the area is known for.  We can safely assume this is not a hug of affection.

I find it ironic that she loves riding her bike so much.  (Which she does.  She feels like she can eat dessert when she puts so many miles on it each week.  :)  I tried a few times to ride with her before she left and after the 2nd ride, she was done!  I guess I was the wrong bike riding companion!

The only injury, so far, is from her bike.  It required stitches.  Sis. Moon got to put one in, which they both thought was pretty noteworthy.  Sadly, the stitches fell out early, the wound didn't heal well, and she'll have a trophy scar to show for it.  You may see at the very left of the picture another scar.  That was before her mission, but as you can see, this leg has had a hard life.  As Amber said, it was only a matter of time until she had to use the mission insurance. :)

Until a few weeks ago, Amber's companion was Sis. Moon.  She was an ideal biking companion. They have many things in common, and were a good companionship.  They worked hard, and had a lot of fun on the side.

Service is a huge part of being a missionary.  They

Our Sister Rietz loves animals, but this armoured guy full out charged her, and did not make a very good first impression!:) 

 

If she looks older in this picture, its because she is.  Our sister missionary is now a 20-year old!  How did that happen?  She was sick on her birthday, and members of the ward brought her these supplies to help her feel better and "more at home".  She had a very hard time resting while she was sick.  Her missionary zeal made it hard.

Amber is a hard-workin', rule-keepin', fun-lovin' missionary.  We are so proud of her. The growth we have seen, and her love of the gospel and the people they teach is wonderful.  She only has 13 months to go!  That is hard to believe!!!

It seems that I am not capable of much more than a photo re-cap these days, but here we go again.  A few photos that are a little slice of life these days...

We are sad to see the Papworth's move to Rexburg.  They have been in our ward for about 10 years, and we love them.  Bro. Papworth gave Ashley, Chelsie and Allison their Patriarchial Blessings.  Moving is the best thing for them, so their parting is bittersweet.

This is the label on the back of my shower gel.  If  a person has issues with Gluten, does it really matter if something you put on the outside of your body is Gluten Free?  After I was done scratching my head on that one, I had to just chuckle.

I was cleaning out a box the other day and I ran across this postcard.  Yes, it is an actual postcard, addressed and mailed to someone.  (See below) As a child, seeing the "DO NOT REMOVE UNDER PENALTY OF LAW" tag caused me some serious worry.  What if it accidentally fell off my pillow while I was sleeping, or came off the mattress while I was putting on the fitted sheet?  Well, now I know what would have happened!  :)  I'm glad I never had to receive a postcard like this one!  This will make me smile for a very long time!!!
(Note - I think I must have been a young adult before I read the tag really carefully and realized what it was saying.)

The other side of the above postcard.  Check out that postmark!!  1969??  Crazy. The recipient was my in-laws' neighbor until about 5 years ago.  How in the heck did it end up in a box in our house with children's board books in it?  A great mystery!!

Kristin's "award" from camp.  Amber would be proud to know Kristin received this.

Speaking of Sister Rietz, she ended up getting about 3 stitches in her leg after slicing it open on the sprocket of her bike.  She was thrilled that Sister Moon got to put in one of the stitches.  Apparently, it is the only one that stayed in.  The wound ended up getting infected, and warrented another visit to the Dr.  She loves her mission, and loves Hesperia, the area she is serving in!!!

Kristin and I went to Spokane for one night last week while the boys were at Scout Camp.  All along the way, the wheat fields were either being harvested, or very close to being ready to harvest.  John spent his summer, 30 years ago, in a combine (not a John Deere, but a Gleaner).  He loved doing it.  In fact, he did it the following 2 summers as well.  How do I remember it was 30 years ago?  It was 1984, the summer we got married.  How has it been 30 years???

We took a little detour home, and found Trader Joes!!  Just walking in that store is a happy experience.  Although I really don't know why that is.  We just love that store.  Maybe its because we know we'll walk back out with these tasty little Pretzel Slims in our grocery bag!  :)  Not pictured is some really chewy Pugliese bread that called to us when we walked through the bakery department.

This was a fortune I got about 1 1/2 years ago.  I was amazed to pull it out of my fortune cookie , because I was just starting a pretty overwhelming project involving organizing my digital photographs, and I didn't feel any of the things that I was supposed to prove!  I taped it to my sewing machine so I am reminded of my potential, because, in all seriousness, its good to be reminded of such things.  This fortune has been on my mind lately because I used it as a jumping off point for my Relief Society lesson yesterday.


And finally, two quotes that have been rattling around in my head because I also used them in my lesson.
“When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.”
– Lao-Tzu

"Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."  - Voltaire

Catching up

It has been a busy month!!  Holy Cow!!  I'm behind in many things, and this blog is one of the victims.

So, here is a quick photo recap of the past two weeks.  

Sister Rietz is thriving on the edge of the Mojave Desert!  It looks like she has finally embraced (Ha!) the Joshua Tree that she initially hated so much!  She and Sister Moon survived her first transfer and are still companions.

Sister Osborne left for Chile, via the Mexico MTC!!  We are so excited for her.  We had to hop from our ward to hers to hear her talk.  Trev and Kristin both agreed they could get into ward-hopping.  (Trev even said he's pretty sure he could be a High Counselor!  :)

We got to go boating with our good friends, the Burrups!  It is incredibly difficult to get together with them.  It probably won't happen again this summer, but it was a great evening.  The water was a little rough for some water activities, but as you can see, it was perfect for tubing.

Trevor turned 14 last week so that means several things...

It means we got to have the yummiest pasta dish for his birthday dinner!  (I strongly encourage you to try this tasty dish.  I'll even give you a link to click on.  You may be tempted to skip the zucchini, but we are here to tell you, this recipe benefits from every chunk of that grilled veggie!)

It means Trev got to head off for his first High Adventure activity yesterday!  They are hiking the Seven Devils loop, and this mama was nervous, but sent him off anyway.

It means there was a good excuse to get his friends together for a "Surprise" party to play frisbee golf, goofy golf, eat pizza and throw the golf balls up into the trees!  (Boys!!!)  (Side note - see the smokey hills in the background?  That day the valley was socked in with smoke from some of the 55 fires burning in Eastern Washington and south of us in Idaho. It was crazy smokey!!!)

It means Trev got to try his hand at homemade beef jerky.  Apparently, this is quite the art, there are many spices to choose from, and it works easiest with a jerky gun.  Who knew such a thing existed??  Although, I have lived in Idaho for 24 years, I should have known that!

 The kids and I got a chance to attend a fireside by Noelle Pikus-Pace.  See her Olympic medal in the picture?  She was the silver medalist at the Sochi olympics in the Skeleton.  She was a great speaker, who had some good advice for the kids.
1- Where are your sights set?  She talked about setting goals, and how you will end up where you set your sights.
2 - You can look back or you can move forward.  After a devasting accident involving a 4 man bobsled and her leg (guess which was the loser?) she had to decide which way to go.  She chose to move forward.
3 - Hold on to your sled - which she likened to the iron rod.  She knew if she held on to her sled she would make it through the course, although not always riding on the sled.

She was very gracious afterward and took a lot of time to take pictures with anyone who wanted to after she was done speaking.  I think my favorite part was the replay of her final run, then realizing she had won the medal and celebrating with her family!  The Olympics always make me cry, and this was no exception!  It was a really great evening.

Along with the above pictures, other things that have happened this month are
-another really sad funeral for a 14-year old boy
-continued nurturing of 90+ pheasants
-Girls' Camp for Kristin (so hot and dry but so fun!)
-so many people moving in and out of our ward it's hard to keep track, meaning many opportunities to help people get ready to move and getting to know the new ones!
-the continuing yard project in which I unknowingly drove a stake right through the pvc pipe, and thus created yet another phase to the project in which we (ok, John and Kristin) had to repair the pipe.  You should know that just looking at the piece of pvc pipe speared by the stake they took out made them smile the rest of the night!!! (I'm just here to help!)
-the launch of our Etsy store, Clabeau, which deserves a post of its own, so be looking for that soon.

And lastly, do you feel the breeze?  The winds of change are a-blowin'.  (more about that soon as well!)

Sister Rietz

Tomorrow is the big day.  Amber leaves the security of the MTC and heads out to the mission field bright and early!!  She will be able to give us a quick call before she boards the plane.  She is excited and ready to serve.  Today she had me post to her blog, Adventures of Sister Rietz.  She also got to send us pictures of her time learning how to be a missionary.  

I wasn't sure how the MTC would be for her.  A person hears so many different things - some missionaries cry themselves to sleep for the first while, some feel overwhelmed, some love the MTC and don't want to leave.  I think I have heard the full gamut.  From what we can glean, via a couple of emails and one snail mail letter home, she has loved her time there, even the long days in the classroom, but is ready to start sharing the Gospel.  Her letters sound upbeat, and you can see from the pictures that she looks pretty happy.

I include a few pictures from her emails.  Enjoy!

With one of her first investigators, Kitty.

I can't be sure, but I would guess this is in front of the Provo Temple.

I love this double greeting to little Carter from his Aunt Amber and Uncle Johnny who happened to be in the MTC at the same time!

Apparently everyone was on the same page for their color scheme that day.  These are the sister missionaries in Amber's district.

Sister Rietz with her companion, Sister Prows.

 We are super excited for Amber as she starts the next part of her mission.  I can't tell you how many times I checked my email today.  Last week her email came in the morning, so I figured that would be the same today.  Nope, not until mid afternoon today.  I had to be a patient Mama.  It was worth the wait, I assure you!  These pictures are worth a thousand words.

Home and 32 and counting (down)

The other night I was coming down the hill and caught a glimpse of our house.  Amber's shade was up and I could see her California State flag lit up by the twinkle lights she hung around it.  I smiled when I saw it.  The mission countdown is dwindling and just hovering over 30 days.  She got her itinerary to fly to Salt Lake this week!  So exciting!!  We started making skirts, and haven't had great success yet, but it is close.  Hopefully today there will be two finished and hanging in her closet.  And she got her booster Tdap so she is protected should she encounter a rusty nail or myriad other things that could give her tetanus, or be exposed to the rapidly returning Whooping Cough!  Immunize your kids for heaven's sake, and the rest of us, as well. (Stepping off soapbox now)

Its getting exciting, and scary and somedays I'm sure it can't get here fast enough.  So, so exciting!!!

But that is not what I sat down to blog about.

It's home that I want to wax poetic about.  When I came down the hill and saw the house with lit windows, I was glad to be heading there.  Not because I was eager to leave our RS Activity, where I had been.  It was a great evening where about 15 of us spent an hour and a half sewing comfort bags for elderly people.  I love getting together with my friends from church.  Laughing, sewing, eating, sharing - its all good.  So that wasn't why I was glad to see those windows iilluminated from inside.  It was knowing my family was inside that house, and although they don't come running to the door to greet me anymore (they are teenagers), I knew they wouldn't be sorry I was home, and thus in a roundabout way, I knew they were glad I was home.

I am not a homebody.  I love to travel.  In fact, John is in Utah right now to celebrate his mom's birthday, and I am very sad I couldn't go.  He gets to spend time with Alli and Ryan, his sisters and their families, and also he's done a little exploring of the art museum at BYU.  I would love to be there.

I love to go see our kids and their families, I love to go new places, I really hope the Australia trip comes to pass (Ashley says we just have to rip off the band-aid and go for it. :) I did fill out my passport application on-line and print it out.  John's is next.)  I have a list of places I would love to see - Italy, not only the picture from the puzzle, but maybe the area where my relatives come from; the French provincial countryside, and Paris of course; Arches and Zions National Parks - I have seen some incredible pictures; I'm told Mt. Ranier shouldn't be missed; and did I mention Australia??

I loved the historic sights, and pretzels, in Philly; could go back to New York in a heartbeat and see everything I missed the first time; and have fallen in love with downtown Seattle.  Portland is still one of my favorite places to go, as well as the Oregon Coast.

But at the end of it all, there is always home.  The place where our family story has taken place for the past 22+ years.  Three of our children were brought home as newborns to this house.  We have held two wedding celebrations, 6 baptism celebrations, 4 graduation parties, 22 Christmases, and I'm not sure how many Thanksgivings and hosted 3 General Authorities.  Again at the end of it all, there is home.

Home is where you hang your hat.
Home is where your story begins.
Home is where your heart is.
Home sweet home.

So no matter if I'm coming home from a trip or coming home from the grocery store, like Dorothy, I'm always glad to get back home, because there truly is no place like home.