Loaded for Bear

The move to Chino, Christmas, and sending my parents off on their mission have all come and gone with nary a hiccup. And I'm unpacked and reveling in all this space and also the Hallmark Channel. You guys, how have I lived without the Hallmark Channel lo these many years? I have really missed those dumb, predictable, cheesy movies. Anyway, here's a smattering of things for your enjoyment:

1. First thing first:  How cute are my parent on their first day at the MTC:

I mean, come on! We got an update tonight and they are both so pumped about being there. 

2. Now let's talk about gardening and how I don't know what I'm doing. But despite that, I still have to keep my parent's plants alive for the next two years. On Saturday I pulled some weeds that I swear were anchored to the core of the earth. I got out the hoe and started hacking away, and that felt great. My parents used weeding as punishment while we were growing up so I've always kind of looked at it that way. But swinging that hoe around was therapeutic. I planted some strawberries, because why not, and some peas because picking a pod off the vine and popping it open and eating the peas inside while the sun shines on my face is one of my favorite things. Sweat peas and the ranunculus bulbs will have to wait until Saturday, after the first wave of the predicted El Nino storms pass. And I'm going to try to cut back my mom's roses. I've watched like 20 how-to videos so let's hope they make it. My mom loves those roses. 

3. Our new ward has welcomed us with happy, open arms. This helps that it is the ward of our childhood and a lot of the people know us and love us already. There's been a lot of call-me-if-you-need-ANYTHING and that's a comfort. Particularly from the former police officer who made me put his number in my phone and said that I could call day or night for anything but to be prepared because he would be "loaded for bear." The pacifist in me was like, "Oh, geez. Bloodshed." But the realist in me was like, "Yes. Thank you. Please bring all the guns." On a less extreme note, we were already invited over for dinner and cards with friends last week and that was fun. 

4. A memory came to me while we were having dinner with those friends. I think one of the last times I had been in that house was in 1988 when I was babysitting their wee small boys who are now fully grown humans with children of their own (I'm 80). I had just put the boys down and then I turned on the TV to catch the end of game 1 of the World Series. Yep. That's the place where I watched Kirk Gibson hit the game winning home run. I jumped up and down in front of their TV and silently cheered because I didn't want to wake up the boys. That's a great memory.

5. Hey, 2016! Let's have loads of fun this year, okay?