We officially found an apartment in Corvallis! Finding a reasonably priced apartment in a not too shabby neighborhood in Corvallis is like competing to catch a game winning home run ball in the midst of hundreds of other devote fans. There is a lot of competition, and really it mostly comes down to timing and luck. So I'm glad that's over with. We are moving on Monday, September 23rd. We would move on the 21st, but the 22nd is the primary program. We want to stay for that.
The other noteworthy piece of news I have to share is that we completely finished Lego Star Wars the Nintendo game. Since we decided to COMPLETELY finish the game, there was a lot of grueling coin collecting at times. It was worth it.
My favorite character was Han Solo in a parka and Patrick's was a bounty hunter.
Side note: I have a hard time saying NIN- tendo, I've been saying NEN-tendo my whole life. Also Browser instead of Bowser, ambilical cord instead of umbilical cord, and numchuck instead of nunchuck (which is actually formally Nunchaku).
Patrick and I liked playing Lego Star Wars so much that we jumped right into playing Lego Harry Potter. I think I make a great Hermione Granger... but Patrick also makes a pretty great Hermione Granger too. We are getting so good at playing the Lego video games that if things didn't work out with finding an apartment in Corvallis, we might have just build a house out of Legos.
They actually did build a Lego House.
Don't worry about us though, we still get out and about. Saturday and Sunday we went to Longview, WA for Stake Conference. It was so OUTSTANDING that I wrote an entire blog post about it Sunday night. The big highlight was that Elder Jeffrey R. Holland was there to speak and set the tone. Monday we went to family dinner with the Beesleys and played a game and watched Fat Head (that movie ensued an hour long car ride discussion and kind of made us question all our nutritional beliefs- I didn't even really know I had nutritional beliefs). Yesterday we went disc golfing at Pier Park. We made a goal to get a team score of 148 or better. If we achieved our goal, we got to go to DQ. If we failed, we had to weed. Guess what our score was...
This weekend was stake conference for us in the Rainier, Oregon Stake. This was a very special stake conference, though. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, the APOSTLE, came!
They announced the news over the pulpit (or pool-pit as they say in the south (Patrick served his mission in the south)) a few weeks ago. Of course everyone was excited and we anxiously awaited his arrival. Every week in primary, they would talk about the apostle coming and went over appropriate behavior. Things they told the kids: you can't take pictures of Elder Holland, You shouldn't ask for his autograph, and you shouldn't try to go hug him because he has body guards.
I don't think our 4 year olds knew who Elder Holland was, what an autograph is, or what body guards are.
Saturday, the 24th, was the adult session and it was probably the best stake conference session I have ever been to. I never got board. The theme was completely about missionary work. One speaker got up, wearing a short sleeve white shirt and tie. He said he felt under dressed, but he didn't have a suit. He just got home from his mission and his suit ripped apart when he was in the mission home (his last day). Elder Holland talked last and thanked or commented to everyone who had talked prior to him in the session. To that young man, he jested that they build those suits to self destruct after 2 years. Elder Holland, has a reputation to be the "rebuker" in general conference, but I found him to be so kind and loving, humors and frank, filled with the spirit, and I could just feel his pure witness and authority when he spoke and taught.
His Message: We do missionary work because we want people to be HEALED. This can only happen when we let Jesus Christ heal our broken selves. It was a beautiful lesson.
Sunday, the 25th, was the general session, with all the little ducklings (children) invited. We had to sit in a full Relief Society room because the chapel and cultural hall was filled to the brim. This time Elder Holland's message was to the youth. At the end of the conference he didn't have time to shake everyone's hand, but he invited all the children up to shake his hand. It reminded me of When Jesus said "suffer the children to come to me." Hopefully our 4 year olds were able to shake his hand and know who he is.
And, just because I like a good theme, after we heard from Elder Holland, we had hollandaise sauce over eggs benedict. Yumba.
This week was Patrick's Birthday, Dar's Bridal Shower, and Cory and Christina's Wedding reception. That's a lot of celebrating.
We celebrated Patrick's birthday 3 times. Once with his family, once just the two of us, and once with my family. It was really hard work to celebrate with his family. They made us work all day in the hot hot sun for brownies and ice cream. Okay, that's not entirely true. We volunteered to help Patrick's brother work on his new house. When I say we worked on his house, what I mean is we spent like 2 seconds in the house and spent all of our time in the backyard hauling and demolishing. Patrick and I both got to drive the tractor. It was my first time... look what they made me do. I'm pretty sure the tractor is the multipurpose tool of farm equipment. Patrick even used the tractor to pick up that propane bomb. After the work, we did eat brownies and ice cream, which was in no way related to our service at the house. Patrick's parents gave us both birthday gifts- they are taking us to Cinetopia. We've never been. I'm excited. All we need to do now is pick the movie. The only requirement is that it has to be in 3D.
Here is a picture of Patrick raising the roof because it's his birthday. Wha wha.
His actually birthday was on a Wednesday. I decided to get sick that day. It was kind of a low key day. However, we did still manage to eat cheese cake, open gifts (I got him a wall clock and he got to renew his motorcycle endorsement), and read all of his virtual birthday cards (Facebook messages).
Speaking of the motorcycle endorsement, Patrick had to get his license renewed, which sadly means he had to get a new picture taken. In case you haven't seen his old license picture, I've included it below. It's fantastic. One of the funniest things of last week was when we went to Ace Hardware. They check your ID there if you buy with a card. The cashier took one look at his photo and said "oh man, I bet you'll be sad when you have to get a new license when you turn 21." Two things are funny about this. 1) Little did she know he was turning 27 in just a few days and 2) We live in Oregon, you don't renew your license even close to your 21st birthday.
We went to Corvallis for the rest of our partying. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch with my parents and the Loudybacks. Patrick wore a ridiculous hat, courtesy of my parents and Wild Wings. Also, Wild Wings gives you a free piece of chocolate cake and ice cream for your birthday. I think I was the only one who ate it, but it sure was yumba.
Friday night was Dar's bridal shower, so all the women folk went to that. It was beautiful and well hosted- props to the maid of honor. Dar and her fiance, Trevor, are actually living in different states right now because Trevor has an internship. Planning a wedding and being in different states would be really rough, and my heart goes out to them. After the shower, we went to Pastini's for dinner. We were a large enough group that they gave us the whole back patio to ourselves. Then we watched Mean Girls and painted our nails. Patrick and I finally got approved for an apartment in Corvallis this week for when we move back. It is in the first ward boundary, which is the ward we were in before, but this time Dar and Trevor will be in our ward. It's so great to have friends at church.
Bridal Shower- photo credit of Stephanie
The boys were left to their own devices... thus, the birth of Ultimate Jenga.
Saturday we went to Cory and Christina's wedding reception. It was kind of out in the middle of nowhere, but we rode with our friends, so the whole trip was very fun, like a mini road trip. I thought the venue of the reception and the decorations matched the couple very well and it was a very nice reception. The couple is actually getting married on Tuesday, but they had their reception early. You know, at the bridal shower and at the wedding reception I was asked to write a piece of marriage advice to the couple. I should really come more prepared to these events because I stumbled to think of any advice either time. I asked Patrick for help and he just said "don't punch each other in the face." So that was our advice to Cory and Christina.
The almost newlyweds- photo credit of Stephanie
Loudybacks!
They all called each other before the reception to make sure they matched.
Family reunions are great because you get to see your family. I especially looked forward to the Woods family reunion we had last week down in Medford because now that my family and extended family members are getting older, going to college, going on missions, and getting married, I hardily get to see everyone together.
This family reunion was the most well planned family reunion I’ve ever been to. We had a service auction where everyone had to auction off a service they could give to someone. There was a white elephant gift exchange (always a crowd favorite). We even had a talent show. There was also a lot of free time that I didn't know what to do with yourself.
Top 10 Moments of the Family Reunion
10. The Name Game- We played the name game on the way to Medford. I thought everyone knew what this was, but Patrick had not heard of it before. We taught him. You play by picking a letter and a gender. Then you take turns giving names that fit the category-- no repeats. For example, we played “B” for boy names. You start the first few rounds with normal names like Bruce, Bryan, Bob, etc. Then you progress to more obscure but still acceptable names like Baxter, Blaze, Bartholomew. By the end, you are grasping for anything, morphing words, using your surroundings as inspirations, making up words, just trying to get lucky. Moral of the story: Buckles is not and should never be a real name.
9. Far East- Every time we go down to Medford, we eat at Far East. It is a Chinese restaurant that is like crack cocaine for the family; we’ve got to get our fix. But, like crack, there are consequences....
Kevan and Olive pre #7
8. Caricature- Something you might not have known about me, I like drawing caricatures. For the service auction, I offered to draw a caricature of the highest bidder. James won. I drew him as a magician because he is a legit magician. He makes like $100 in a day for busking at the farmers market.
7. White Elephant Tears- I brought a ski-ball-esk toy game for my white elephant gift. Krislyn opened it originally, then my 4 year old niece wanted it so she stole it, then Kevan tried take it from her. That was a mistake. She started crying. Kevan was on her bad list for like 2 full hours- which is a long time for children to remember to be mad for. Note to parents: kids should not play white elephant.
The Game of Tears
6. Mithing Tooth- Our talent for the talent show was to read/act funny poems. It turned out well. Below should be a video of us practicing in our house. It is surprisingly difficult to read from a script and move a puppet at the same time. My favorite part about this video is Patrick's sinking puppet. He doesn't realize it's happening until 38 seconds in.
5. Back Porch Dinning- I have the fondest memories of eating meals on my grandparents’ back deck. I’ve had many of my birthday parties on that porch. It is just so pretty and calm back there. It does share a fence with a less than well maintained grave yard, which is a little creepy, but at least the neighbors aren’t loud. We had breakfast and dinner and celebrated recent/upcoming birthdays on the deck this time.
4. Rube Goldberg Machine- As I mentioned before, there is a lot of free time at family reunions. Patrick and my cousin Andrew spent most of their time building a Rube Goldburg Machine. My favorite part was the zip-line.
3. The Break Down- The car broke down. You know how all the tires are supposed to be going the same direction? Well something in the steering malfunctioned so our front right tire looked like it was pigeon toed. We didn’t know when the car would be able to get fixed and we didn’t want to get stuck in Medford, so Patrick and I drove up to Eugene with Kevan and Krislyn. We still had to get from Eugene to Corvallis (about an hour more). Our friends came to our rescue without hesitation and we made it to Corvallis. Sometimes its nice to need help because you get to find out how great your friends are.
2. The Temple- Patrick and I went to the Medford Oregon LDS Temple. I went to the dedication of it back when I was 10. Back then, I was allowed to walk through it with protective booties on my feet, but this was the first time I was able to walk through it to do the work. Patrick and I always look forward to going to the temple, but this time there was a little more excitement, because they had a new video. I have only been endowed for 9 months so the old video was still new to me, but the new one is beautifully inspired. Apparently, only select temples are showing the new video, and I don’t think Portland is one of them. Also, if you’re not LDS, and you have questions about temples, feel free to ask me.
1. Perfectly Wrapped- James wrapped his white elephant gift perfectly.
