Normally I don’t mind a little deja vu keeping me on my toes but I could have done without it late last night. With two days left to get Christopher packed and off to his mission, my To Do list is growing instead of shrinking. The fact that it involved a very long panicked deja vu moment that captured all of our woes did not bode well for sleep. That is why at 4:30 am I finally have time to blog and catch up with Stephanie as she heads out the door to work.
Lots of things have kept us busy and distracted these past two weeks. The Olympics are right there at the top of the list. I caught my dad so riveted to Curling that he actually went up and stood in front of the TV. For two weeks we were glued to the action. It felt like we should have held our own closing ceremonies to bring some closure.

I would have to say that Michael’s ballroom life has come in a close second. We have had back-to-back all day Saturday competitions with daily practices in between. All of Hannah & Michael’s hard work paid off with their personal best finishes in every category including 2nd place in swing. With the competition season now over, we can take a much needed breather.

Danielle got herself bamboozeled into a dance of her own. She is taking Chinese 2 this year. When her junior high decided to do the musical Mulan, Danielle opted out because of the time committment. Little did we know that her Chinese class had to stay after school several times a week anyway to perfect a Chinese folk dance that would open the musical all 5 shows. Danielle had to twirl these red cloth thingies while walking and dancing. She did a perfect job of it and we are so relieved to be able to come home after school for a few weeks before track season starts.

Ty, of course, had to make the list. His follow up scope to check on the progress of his throat/heartburn situation was many months overdue. Anesthesia at first appeared to have such a sweet effect on him. He gushed about how much he loved me and was so mushy about being married that I started writing down all the romantic things he was saying. Then he started to wake up and all of a sudden I saw my life with him in 20 years when he has alzheimers full swing. “Take this crap off of me!” “Let’s get out of here” ”I can drive – I know I can” ”The nurse is a wouse!” “You know they’re just wasting time – I can go!” “You don’t know where my bag of belongings are?!?” After requesting to kiss the nurse and trying to get up to run around the room – both in an effort to get his heart rate up so he could leave – they finally brought out the wheelchair and I took my Dr. Jekyl & Mr. Hyde home with me. A follow up visit is today but things are looking good.

Everyone is trying to get some quality time with Chris. Mark & Zac have first dibs since they are practically family.

These boys have spent the past three weekends hanging out, eating and doing this:

We have also had several visitors stop by. My very favorite had to be my grandma who came down to spend the weekend with us. We really don’t get to see her enough.

We have also squeezed in hand after hand of Mormon Bridge. Anyone who shows up gets the chance to laugh with us as we play our favorite family game. While Stephanie holds the all-time record high winning game, Danielle has the distinction of sluffing a 14 of trump – twice. Not something I would reccomend trying.

None of that is getting me any closer to completing my To Do list which includes wiping an ipod and setting it up with mission appropriate music, exchanging pants we bought online for ones that are actually the color the picture said they should be, setting up mission email & money accounts, rounding up a stockpile of medicine that is unavailable in Malaysia, printing off family photos so he won’t forget us and my very favorite is the suitcase situation.

We bought two spiffy suitcases over a month ago only to discover that they really smell. I’ve tried several dousings of fabreeze, pet de-odorizer and charcoal briquettes but they still reek. I keep making people sniff them to identify what could possibly be the problem. I think Patricia is most likely the closest with a water-proofing chemcial spray smell. I kept thinking it would fade over time. Ha. Finally, Chris himself decided to take an interest after my deja vu moment that involved having no suitcases to pack all his stuff. His verdict was “I like it. I think it smells good – a just like new smell.” Well, that just-like-new smell will have to be in the same room with him for two years. So I made him sleep with the bags in his bedroom and we’ll see how much he enjoys that smell when he wakes up in about five more hours. Just to be safe (and to combat the deja vu) Chris & I have a little suitcase shopping to do today. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t on my list.