December 2014

*A couple days before December, I was putting up Christmas decorations when it was 75 degrees in my house and needed to turn on the air conditioning. It was hard to wrap my brain around the fact that it was Christmastime. The last place I grew up in was Alaska where Christmas (and 8 months out of the year) means cold!! Not sure I'll ever get used to the opposite weather and temperatures here in the south.

*The night before December 1st, I posted on Facebook: Thoughts and prayers go out my dad tonight and tomorrow. He is undergoing unexpected quadruple by-pass surgery tomorrow morning. Praying for this wonderful man, my equally wonderful mom and the surgeons who will be working on him. On a lighter note, when it's all done, my dad and I will have matching "zippers" since I preceded him in open heart surgery by 32 years. I'm so grateful for modern medicine! Good luck keeping him down, Mom! A body cast would help!

The update I gave on 12/1/14 was this: Dad came out of surgery a few hours ago. Doctor said Dad did really well--his heart is strong. There was a mitral valve that also needed repairing so it took a little bit longer, but so far so good. He's awake now and and Mom reported he was standing up and doing deep knee bends about five hours post-surgery. That sounds like Dad! I believe in the power of prayer! Thank you so much for all of yours! (He was also pushing my niece, Kaitlyn, around in his wheelchair!)

*On Tuesday, December 2nd, Jared and I attended the very posh St. Joseph Med Staff Christmas Party (held at the Pebble Creek Country Club). We found a couple of PAs Jared had met over the past few months and sat at a table with them. There was an open bar, of course, which was exciting for most everyone but us. We just sat around waiting for the meeting to begin. There was some business from the directors and such at the head of the hospital. Sister Penny (the nun who interviewed Jared for this job) led us in a prayer. She actually sat down next to me at our table and we had a lovely conversation with her. Dinner was delicious: prime rib, salmon, all sorts of sides and salads, fruits, breads and desserts. I found it fascinating that they honored two physicians and two nurses--one recognition from the hospital and one nominated by their peers. Yet, nowhere on the program was any honor or mention of Physician Assistants or Nurse Practitioners--the mid-level providers. So I leaned over to Sister Penny and kindly asked her about it. "I love how you honor doctors and nurses, but what about your advanced practioners?" I seemed to stump her for a second and then she replied that I was right. They would need to work on that. Hopefully, Jared's job wouldn't be in jeopardy for my inquiry. I felt it was a valid point, however. The advanced practioners work just as hard, if not harder, than anyone else and they generate money for the hospital (unlike nurses who only cost money). Jared is amazing at what he does so yeah, I think he should have an equal opportunity to be recognized for his contribution. 

*On December 3rd, I noticed the nativity I had set out on the dining room table had been "messed with." I posted this on Facebook: If you have little ones at home this is a touching experiment to try. Set out your nativity in a straight line or semi-circle and wait to see what happens. Without fail, no matter how many times I change it back, the kids always rearrange the figures so that they are surrounding and facing the baby Jesus. Children totally get it. Jesus is at the center of it all. Jesus is the gift--the first gift--and star of the season. May we keep CHRIST in Christmas now and at the center of our lives all year through!

Ah ha! Caught in the act!! Calvin and Karcyn making some changes. 

Pictures of the living room and kitchen nook with furniture and a few Christmas items.

*I love this quote by President Monson: "He who gives money gives some, he who gives time gives more, and he who gives of himself gives all."

*December 5th, Jared made the front page of the local newspaper (the Madisonville Meteor) for the new occupational medicine program that he would be running.

*Later that night, Jared made the 10 o'clock news--top story!! Channel 40 KRHD out of Waco (we think :) He did a fabulous job and is a *natural* in front of the camera. The headline was: "New clinic in Madisonville Expands Specific Kind of Healthcare--A new clinic in Madisonville is expanding workplace related healthcare to more rural areas and saving employers time and money."

*Calvin wrote this in his 1st grade class:

*A gorgeous winter sunset!

*Sooooo, finding a Christmas tree in Texas is a "LOT" different than finding one in Oregon. Although, for our last few years in Oregon we were buying them from the Century High School band to support our neighbors and then Jake. And we picked them out at the tennis courts which might as well have been a parking lot. Even still--they were big, full and deliciously fragrant douglas fir trees. Cut very recently and locally. And cheap: $25. We had no idea where to go to get a tree in Texas. I suppose this would have been a good time to make the switch to an artificial tree, but I grew up with real trees and I just can't do it. Not yet, anyway.

I learned there are a couple of farms we could have gone to within 45 minutes to an hour away. That didn't fit with our plans, however, so when we learned Lowes carries them, we set off for our nearby hardware store. This year we donated our Christmas to a family in need so a small tree seemed fitting. It also fit better into our budget! Our little tree cost $45! And who knows how long since it had been cut. The kids were engrossed in the process of "bagging" the tree.

Haha! It is practically a miniature tree--even in the tree stand! But we love it!

*December 11th--Good bye pretty, lavender Oregon license plates! Car inspection, car registration and Texas driver's license all done. Finally!!!! What a fiasco! 

*December 12th. This is how we do our first ward Christmas party. Jared was helping to cover at the local urgent care from 5-9:30pm and missed it.  

*JJ posing with the double-decker bus that Mom and Dad brought back from their mission in London because he found the page about London in our "Where In the World Will You Go on Your Mission?" book--and a red double-decker bus just like his!

JJ and his "ah-ee." He loves that blanket.

*Karcyn pretending to be Ann "The Librarian" Withers from Studio C! Google it! Such a funny sketch! :)

*A few pictures of Jared's office space in Madisonville. Except that the desk is where the receptionist and Medical Assistant sits. Jared's "office" or nook is out the door and down the hall and reminiscent of a janitor's closet with cinder blocks. His Medical Assistant pages him when there's a patient. 

*Cooper making rank as a 12-year-old scout and Tenderfoot. Poor kid got really snookered in scouts when we moved. Just when 11 year old scouts was really picking up in Oregon to do camping and such, the scouts here in Texas were shutting down for the summer. We're proud of Cooper working hard to catch up.

*Cooper and his Scout Master, Ben Bigelow.

*December 11th was the day we set aside on our Christmas chain to decorate our little tree.

Jake played music while we worked.

There was just enough room on this tree for the kids to hang their personal ornaments, but no extras.

It was Cooper's turn to put on the star. Good thing it was a short tree so Cooper could reach! ;)

*December 13th--Crazy temps!

*December 17th--back in November when we were invited to make our own gingerbread houses with our new friends, the Scoresbys, we learned that Natassia illustrated the book Gerald Giraffe. It was written by Jack Weyland! Who was, when I was a teenager, my favorite LDS author! In another twist of fate, his wife, Sheryl, was one of my education teachers at Ricks (BYU-I). Natassia's bishop was Jack Weyland when she was at BYU-I. He read them a poem at a ward event one night and Natassia told him he should publish it into a book and she would illustrate it for him...and voila!! Sooo cool. It's SUCH a fabulous story in Dr. Seuss style. And her pictures are adorable. They make me chuckle. I highly recommend it. I loved it so much, I ordered several of them for my kids' teachers for Christmas and had Natassia sign them!

*December 20th--a hike with the scouts.

*Another Christmas Chain event and a family favorite: Bo-Ho-Holing with Santa and Elf hats! Our little elf JJ even has little elf ears. :)

Calvin. Devilish little elf who just wants his two front teeth for Christmas!!

We love how JJ just waits patiently for his ball to roll, roll, roll slowly down the lane.

*Karcyn surprised she knocked down any pins at all! ;)

*Karcyn and Calvin

*JJ

 *Jake and Cooper

 *Big Jared and Little Jared :)

 *The Calvinator

Merry Christmas!!

*December 24th--our spaghetti dinner by candlelight on Christmas Eve.

During our Christmas Eve program, Jake played the piano.

JJ told jokes ;)

We usually have chocolate fondue with strawberries and bananas and pound cake. But Cooper got the stomach flu on Christmas Eve the year before and that's exactly what he threw up. It traumatized him and he was super grossed out at the idea of having that this year. So we tried thinking of an alternative. But in the end, Cooper said he'd "sacrifice" and try it again. Way to take one for the team, man!

Because our driveway is flat and not steep like it was in Oregon and the weather is much more mild and warm and conducive for being outside, Santa brought the kids new bikes for Christmas. And Jake was the lucky one who got to put JJ's together! We're just giving our future engineer lots of practice and Jared didn't really want to ruin the mood by losing his temper because of "poor instructions." ;)

He did a great job and a great service!

Karcyn's Christmas Story picture

Dear Elder Hough...

We left College Station on Friday, March 9th to begin our drive to St. George to see my parents and siblings and all of their kids for Spring Break. On Tuesday night (3/13) while we were out with Shane and Brandi Johnson (Jared's MTC companion and his wife), Jake texted to tell us that our Stake President just reached out to him. President Sharp had noticed that Jake's mission had been assigned on March 7th--THREE DAYS after his papers were submitted. That's a bit unusual. Usually it takes a week or two to be assigned. The general waiting period from submitting your mission papers to receiving the mission call in the mail is about 3-4 weeks. We were not expecting it to come until the last week in March. President Sharp said it might be waiting for Jake when we got back from our trip, but we weren't counting on it. Our twin nephews had their calls assigned in three days as well and it still took 2 1/2 weeks to receive them.

After 23 hours of driving back to Texas on Sunday, March 18th, we swung by the mailbox to get our pile o' mail. We told Jake he could do the honors. He carefully looked in and turned back to us and said very solemnly, "It's here." I didn't believe him and said, "No way, it's not." He looked at me seriously and said, "Yes.It.Is." And then, from the bottom of the pile, he very carefully pulled out the big, white envelope as proof.

We were SHOCKED!! I wish we had been there to get the mail ourselves so we would have known for certain when it came, but at the longest, if it arrived the day before, that would have been 13 days from start to finish. LESS than 2 weeks. All of a sudden this was becoming more and more real--and a lot faster than we expected!!

He wanted to coordinate with some friends who just moved to Hawaii over Christmas break so they could FaceTime when he opened it up. But we didn't want to wait too long. We decided the big moment would be the next day, Monday, March 19th at 8pm. (Good luck focusing at school, Jake!)

For Family Home Evening, before Jake opened his call, we listened to Elder Rasband's conference talk, "The Divine Call of a Missionary." In it, he describes the general process of how the sacred mission assignments are made.

Here are a couple of the friends who were eager to learn about Jake's call.

My friend asked me where I thought Jake might be going. I said I've always felt he'd go overseas and speak a foreign language. I think that will become important in laying the groundwork for other callings later in life as described in his Patriarchal blessing. Selfishly, I wanted him to go to another country so we could learn about a new land and culture and people that we wouldn't know any other way. But...we were also preparing ourselves for Utah or Idaho. :)  Of the 14-16 missionaries serving from our stake, about 6 of them are in Utah! Being found worthy to serve a mission is the most important. Where he's assigned to labor is only secondary to the call to serve. And, we know from the experiences of others that a missionary could be reassigned to a different location for a myriad of reasons such as health, natural disasters, political unrest, visa delays, etc. just to name a few. You go where the Lord needs you. But--we also told Jake that if he goes stateside, then he'll get packages. Warm ones with goodies in them. :) So it's a win-win!!

Without any further ado--

Jake has been called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He has been assigned to labor in the HUNGARY/ROMANIA Mission where he will prepare to preach the gospel in the Hungarian Language! He reports to the Provo, UT Missionary Training Center (MTC) on Wed. July 11th. He was also informed that, "in addition to your calling to share the gospel, you will be assigned to serve in the Hungary Mission Region." We're not entirely sure what that means. We also noticed there was no map of his area included in the papers he received. So everyone was googling it and trying to find out more about this particular mission, which was funny to see.

That's Jared on the left, Jason Schubert (former bishopric member of our ward and Jake's home teaching companion) in the middle and Nate Roeth--2nd counselor in the Stake Presidency on the right.

We have since learned that the Hungary and Romania missions, which are currently separate, will be combined into one mission this July--hence no information. It will be interesting and exciting to see how this all unfolds! The current mission president and his wife have been serving since July of 2015, so Jake will have a new mission president when he arrives in September because those amazing couples serve for three years.

Jake's buddies who treated him to Bahama Bucks after the big reveal!

Several friends from Oregon told us that our former Stake President's daughter just opened her mission call on Saturday. She was assigned to labor in the Hungary/Romania mission--Hungarian speaking, reporting on July 11th--just like Jake!! So fun that, while they didn't know each other back then, they have both lived in the same stake/area (and went to church in the same building!) and will definitely get to know each other while in the same district at the MTC!

Earlier this morning, my friend texted to tell me that her nephew's best friend just opened HIS mission call on Sunday. He was called to labor in the Hungary/Romania Mission--speaking Romanian and reports on July 4th. What are the odds of that??

Jake is already trying to get his hands on a Hungarian/English dictionary. :) My friend, Erin Stokes, sent us an article from the Ensign (church magazine) that explained the history of missionary work in Hungary. It was fascinating! Reminded me a lot of the experiences that other missionaries had in the Book of Mormon. I find it no coincidence that Elder Russell M. Nelson, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, dedicated the area in Hungary for missionary work thirty years ago and is our current prophet whose signature is at the bottom of Jake's call.

Jake's BIG weekend

Yesterday, March 3, 2018, Jake completed a goal he had for the year. He ran the Woodlands Texas Marathon (a Boston qualifier). He not only ran it, he owned it! Jake finished in 3 hours, 38 minutes (and that was after hitting a wall the last three miles). He had paced a guy doing an 8 minute mile, but when the guy called out the times, they were 7 minutes 45 seconds, 7 minutes 32 seconds, etc. A lot faster than Jake was planning on hence the struggle at the end. Even still, he came across the finish line strong as if he could go another 10 miles. He finished 1st in his age group, was in the top 15% overall, and almost an hour faster than the average overall men's time. You wouldn't know it, but he was nursing a knee injury from the last three weeks. He had been praying and praying that the Lord would help him accomplish this and he later reported that he didn't have one issue with his knee. He said he definitely had some divine help--it was an awesome experience and definitely validation considering he was in the hospital 16 months ago after collapsing during a cross-country competition. He proved to himself that he can do physically hard things.

This is the before picture. :)

Getting ready to cross the finish line!

A 26.2 FINISHER!!!

THEN--as he and Jared were making their way back home, Jake found out by email that he was ACCEPTED TO BYU in Provo! He's been a College Station Cougar these past four years and will continue to be a Cougar--in two years, of course, as he'll be deferring to serve his mission.

AND FINALLY--President Sharp sent us an email at 12:13 AM this morning titled "Update 2.0" ;) His missionary application has officially been submitted to Church headquarters!! The clock is now ticking...he should have his call in about 3-4 weeks.

I Hope They Call Me on a Mission!

I hope they call me on a mission

When I have grown a foot or two.

I hope by then I will be ready

To teach and preach and work as 

missionaries do.

I hope that I can share the gospel

With those who want to know the truth.

I want to be a missionary

And serve and help the Lord

while I am in my youth.

~Children's Songbook of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, page 169

Children who grow up in our church are singing this song by the time they're three years old, if not sooner. Its catchy tune and sweet, earnest message makes it a beloved favorite.

While young women are more than welcome to serve missions, missionary work is a priesthood duty and our church leaders encourage all young men who are worthy and who are physically able and mentally capable to respond to the call to serve. Jake's missionary papers are complete and we are waiting, literally, any hour now for our stake president to push that submit button!

Mission papers can be submitted to church headquarters in Salt Lake City no more than 120 days prior to the mission candidate's availability date, which, for Jake, is July 1st. February 21st was the earliest day he could submit his papers and his goal. After having his mission interview with Bishop Graham, he met with President Sharp on Thursday, February 15th and it turns out, Jake forgot to have us sign a form. Which seems awfully reminiscent of his Eagle Scout paperwork! No biggie,  though. We could sign it at home and then scan it and send it to our bishop, who would get it in Jake's account. We learned, that night however, that President Sharp would be out of the country on Feb. 21st, but that wouldn't be a huge issue because he could get online and send Jake's papers in from whatever location he was at.

Jake texted President Sharp on the 21st to find out if he was able to push any buttons that day. President Sharp, who was in New Zealand, texted Jake later to apologize. He was having difficulty with his phone and getting an internet connection, but that he would send in Jake's papers as soon as he could. Jake was MOST patient and understanding in his reply to President Sharp. Jared and I, while also understanding, were not very patient! It's just ironic that we get to the very day to start the clock ticking and we have to wait some more. *sigh* I guess it could be worse. Jake's young men president was telling Jake that he waited and waited and waited long beyond when he thought he should have received his mission call in the mail before asking his Stake President about it. This was back in the days of "snail mail." He didn't want to be a nuisance about it, which is why he let so much time go by, but when he finally inquired about his call, the Stake President sheepishly admitted that he had just found the mission papers under a pile on his desk! They hadn't even been mailed off to Salt Lake City. So while we do have to wait for the mission call to arrive in our mailbox, at least our stake president can send off the documentation electronically! Once he has an internet connection, of course! ;)

For kicks and giggles, we thought it would be fun to invite our family and friends and their children to predict where they think Jake will be called to serve. We have an Amazon gift card for the first person who makes the closest prediction to his two year assignment, whether that's the country, state, city or actual mission. In the case of a tie, Jake will draw names. :) If you've already predicted on Facebook, you're good to go!! Leave your prediction in the comments or on Facebook!

******************************UPDATE, 3/4/18*************************************

Yesterday morning (3/3), I woke up to a text from President Sharp. He said he sat down to submit Jake's papers when he first got up and received an ERROR message in response. Apparently, the papers were outside of the 120 day period. You've got to be kidding! I never counted the days. Jared never counted. We left that up to Jakey Poo. But when I read that, I went and counted them myself. Sure enough, Feb. 21st was more like 130 days! I had to laugh. This kid is in AP science and two AP math classes and he couldn't count back 120 days from July 1st. :) It's easy enough to get off by a 10 when you're excited, I guess. President Sharp was relieved to know he hadn't set back Jake's call by because of his trip, but he and I both agreed that if Jake not being able to count his days is the worst thing, he's doing pretty good!