Christmas, St. Louis, MO 1987

I'm guessing on the date for this picture. But I'm guessing it's 1987 because I look about four and Jess looks about two and if it was Christmas 1988 Cami would have been born and posing with us. We lived in St. Louis from 1985-1989 while my dad was in medical school. I can't figure out if I have a lot of memories of my actual experiences in St. Louis or if I just think I remember things because we have awesome home videos from those years. Either way, I kind of think of St. Louis as a haven for a toddler. (I highly doubt that is the real case.)

Anyway, point of the post is that, Jess is moving to Brooklyn, NY tomorrow. I am going to miss having her only 10 minutes down the road. It's been so convenient to be able to have her pop over or for us to plan a last minute outing on a Saturday afternoon, or to have her husband, so kindly, help me move something heavy using his big company truck. I'm excited for her to be in New York though, she will love it, she has always wanted to live there, and I'll have an easy place to stay when I come into town. More NYC trips on the horizon? Probably. Hooray!

And if you were wondering, she's also recovering from her bike accident. My mom came out to help them pack up their house and Jess can more or less successfully walk around.

Jess's Accident

I was vague after putting pictures of Jess up yesterday. I wasn't trying to be so vague, I was attempting to show that despite her being in the ICU on Friday and Saturday she's not nearly as bad as it looks. Fail.

So here's the story as far as I understand. Friday was Bike to Work day in DC. Jess and Michael and a few others, including Michael's doctor mother went for a bike ride on Friday. The path was crowded. Somehow Jess and Michael bumped into each other while riding side by side and Jess took a fall that resulted in her landing on her handlebars and cracking her ribs and somehow lacerating her liver. The liver bleeding stopped on it's own thank goodness, so she didn't need any kind of surgery to repair it.

She is no longer on oxygen or morphine. When I went by the hospital yesterday she was perky and happy and looking a thousand times better. She still moves slowly but she is healing well and seems to be making good healing progress.

Pssst!

1.  I'm wearing my new maxi dress for the third time in three days. Thank goodness for deodorant, inside activities while sporting it, and gorgeous weather that didn't make me sweat.

2.  My sister Jess is currently sitting in the hospital a couple metro stops away with broken ribs and a healing liver laceration. If she doesn't get to go home today, I'm popping by after work.

Thursday after work when we got mani-pedis and then Mr. Yogato

Friday after work (ok actually Saturday, but I'm sure Friday didn't look much different, maybe more doctors and nurses).
Also, this picture looks really bad. But Jess was looking at Michael who was at the end of the bed so her eyes are kind of closed, she's not dying,
 just under close watch and supervision by the ICU nurses.

3.  I'm going to the beach this weekend and I can't seem to stop looking at bathing suits I don't need. And because I'm going to be at the beach, my mom is flying in on Wednesday to help take care of Jess before she moves to Brooklyn, NY at the beginning of next month.

4.  Something miraculous happened to me last week. I discovered THIS tumber. And despite the occasional bad words and references to things this Mormon girl doesn't do, it's pretty funny (just giving you a warning).

5.  Saturday night after some mishaps and logistical detail malfunctions we ended up sitting on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial. It was the most gorgeous night. And let me tell you, sitting on the ground in a maxi dress? So much better than sitting on the ground in anything else. And after paying homage to Mr. Jefferson, reading a favorite part on his four quotes, and then coming out of the rotunda and seeing my friends just chilling on the steps (or in the boy's case, practicing their golf swings and imagining what it would be like to launch a ball off the steps into the Tidal Basin), it just seemed like the start to a beautiful summer.

Wedding Pics

Jess' wedding pictures were FINALLY put up online for me to see. Here are some of my favorites. 

 

Cami jumped in front of me EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I think we jumped four times before I gave up.

Oh, but you wanted a picture of my sister and her husband? Fine.

Ok, here's a lovely one of her dress, and Michael looking dapper in his suit. Very different from this picture. Right?

 

all pictures by Camilla Combs

Jess' Wedding

It's Monday, a few days after the wedding and we're still exhausted. We sat around the house all day yesterday. It was pretty heavenly. A really nice man in our ward took a bunch of pictures at the reception and gave us the CD. Here are some of my favorites.

Jess' dress was made out of fabric she bought in Singapore.

Our back deck where we had a combo play nice jazz music in the background. The piano player is in our ward (and he's also Amy's brother-in-law)

Eating Tasty Thai. Our favorite Thai restaurant in Eugene. They packed everything for us in to-go boxes. And the food was delicious!

The cake was decorated with left over flowers by Emma.

View of the eating area from the deck.

As a surprise for Michael Jess sang Ballad For My One True Love by Mason Jennings

They learned a salsa dance and performed for everyone.

 

Full blown dance party. We like to dance...

The day was really fun. We got up at 6 to get ready for the marriage at the Portland Oregon Temple, then had a luncheon afterward at a house in the Portland area before driving the two hours back down to Eugene to get ready for the reception at 7. Everything was so lovely, the temple, the luncheon (which was so cute and put together by the groom's family, and styled by his lovely sister, but I didn't take a single picture. oops!) and then I just thought the reception was so much fun. Jess kept saying she didn't want to leave the party early. We told her it would end as soon as she left. She still wanted to hold out longer. It was pretty funny.

Oh, and I learned I take horrible candid photos while I'm dancing. Evidenced below...

Neglector

I've been committing serious blog neglect lately. I'd apologize but I'm not really sorry. I don't know if I've grown tired of this blog and wish to start new? Or if I'm over blogging? Or if it's just because it's not that interesting to write about how my days consist of pushing snooze too many times, getting ready, running to the bus, working, gchatting, running stressful errands, going to the gym, trying to motivate myself to clean my room, watching Grey's Anatomy (which we get sent via Netflix), making dinner, or doing a myriad of different but not really exciting things. I'm frequently tired because I stay up too late, and by too late I mean 11. And it's been really hot. Too hot. And humid. My hair looks like a lion's mane it's so big.

I'm trying to get in shape for Jess' wedding in September and frequently get frustrated with myself because I didn't start getting in shape last July. I even went so far as to tell Jess it would be much more convenient for me if she got married next summer. That way I would be skinnier, and I'd make the wedding line look better. She told me I was ridiculous and selfish. (I was only joking! Mostly... Besides, that extra year would give me time to find someone good-looking and male to bring as my wedding date... Jess didn't think it was a good idea and is still getting married Labor Day weekend.)

Stole this puppy from Facebook. I think I look like I'm naked. But I assure you I was wearing both a suit and cover up.

Since I live where it's really hot, it's been really convenient to have a friend with a boat. I'm working on my summer tan and future wrinkles and probably skin cancer. Not that I want the wrinkles and the probable skin cancer but I just assume everyone will get it anyway so why not just use your sunscreen try to prevent it if you can but suck it up and jump in the lake. The good news of the last visit to the lake however was that I finally stood up on the wakeboard. And then fell...

Highlight of this week:
Well, I have two highlights.
1.) Lacy came to visit from Arizona. We were roommates at BYU after meeting in Poland. See evidence below:

Warsaw Zone Conference

Roommate picture Fall 2007. Natalie was also in both pictures, but she didn't come visit this weekend, so she doesn't get a post. BUT she has a baby so that won't happen anytime soon...

2.) We went to Zumba on Wednesday night for the first time, loved it, and now we're in the process of teaching a certain roommate (who will remain nameless to protect her identity) to do a body roll. She's going to get it. And she's going to be good at it. And she's going to use it frequently.

And that's about it.

Bad blogger

So, I've been back from vacation for a week or so, well, last weekend was practically non-stop so I guess the vacation was over once work started on Tuesday, so I've only been back for three days. Now, I have a problem. I don't have pictures to share today. But, I'll give you the quick rundown in ten bullets before posting with pictures sometime in the near future.

1. Spent three and a half days, four nights at Yosemite National Park. I really love it there. And if it didn't sound quite so cheesy, I'd tell you it was like home.
2. Got a Kindle for my birthday. I love books and somewhat mourn the loss of not having the actual book, but it's so convenient for the gym it's worth it. (I like reading while I work out. When I worked out at the YMCA in Eugene they had these book holder things that were really fantastic. Bally's in DC doesn't have them and my reading quantity has gone down a lot.) 
3. Decided to read the Chronicles of Narnia since a.) I've never read them and b.) my cousin's seven year old daughter just finished reading them all. Finished The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on the plane and downloaded Prince Caspian a few days ago.
4. Roommates threw me and roommate Katie a joint birthday party Friday evening after returning from California. I will post pictures. We had a photo wall.
5. Went to the DC 4th of July concert dress rehearsal on Saturday night. David Archuleta sang the national anthem. The funniest part however was when we expected to see Gladys Knight and our came some white woman lip-syncing her songs. Guess Gladys needed to make sure she hit up church Sunday morning before jetting off to sing for the country.
6. Sat outside the Lincoln waiting for fireworks on Sunday. We played cards (Golf) and "what-if".
7. Best fireworks I've ever seen. They were RIGHT over us! And the finale seemed to go on forever. I was so glad we were right there to see them!
8. Went to Lake Anna with Shannon, Lisa and Debbie. I could hardly move the next day from holding on so tight to the tubes.
9. Well, I guess I only have nine things really, well, I could have written more about Yosemite, but I'm going to write a post dedicated to that. But, what is next is definitely the most exciting. (drum roll.....) Jess and Michael B announced their engagement in Yosemite! The immediate family knew it was happening, but they chose a date: September 4. It's perfect, right after Cami comes home from her mission, a long weekend, and right before Emma leaves for her mission. Here, I'll leave you with a picture. That can be number ten.
10.  

Whoops

A few weeks ago went into the bathroom at work to fix my hair. This resulted in an examination of my earring-less earlobe. One earring in, one earring out. I searched my pockets, the area around my desk, my purse, and even my jewelry box at home. That earring was no where to be found. I figured it must have fallen out somehow on the commute to work.

Well, last week when I cleaned my room I threw away the lone earring.

But, this morning while messing around with all the chords under my desk/organizing the small pile of shoes down there, I found that missing earring that I thought had been lost forever; it was under a shoe.

I was excited at first, until I realized I threw the original away last week.

Shoot.

I may not have that cute earring anymore, but I do have this cute picture (taken on my phone) of me and Jess from last Thursday. We went to Amsterdam Falafel in Adams Morgan before walking down to Dupont Circle for dessert (Mr. Yogato, evidenced by Jess' stamped forehead).

I'm adoring this warm weather and am really excited to walk around DC and find good places to eat, lounge, and relax this summer.

Jess' East Coast Weekend Extravaganza

Picture taken at Portland airport right before I headed back to DC and Emma was heading to Provo last month.

 Or at least that's what I entitled the joke itinerary I made for Jess' trip this weekend. It's including lots of eating. Me at work. Us in NYC with Carly and Liz. Me "sick" on Monday, a bus ride with Jess and a bus ride without Jess. 

She just landed in DC. Now she has to figure out her own way to get to to Pentagon City. (I'm still at work and can't pick her up and it was cheaper to fly into a far away airport.)

But, I'm excited. 

And kind of wishing Emma and Cami and Rach were here too.

Three Years Ago

On this day, three years ago I got on an airplane to return home from my mission. April 20, 2007.

Tomorrow, April 21, 2010, Jess returns from hers!

One Week!

Facebook says: Jessica Richey is in an internet cafe in kuala lumpur with the parents...coming home next week so don't get too excited!13 hours ago

I'm gonna be in Oregon in one week! I'm so excited I can hardly handle it! 

And, I finally got an email from my parents today about how seeing Jess was. This is the quick version, with my comments in italics.

• "We took the elevator up, come out, and we see Jess through the doors, just sitting there by some other elders who were going home as well!  There she was, our little Jess!  It was pretty exciting." (It's cool hearing the other side of this. I remember being so excited as I walked off the airplane in Eugene!)
• "Walked over, rested a bit, and then got picked up by one of the office couples for dinner over at the Clark's house. Had a good testimony meeting and I was so tired.  I could have fallen asleep and I think I did a few times with my eyes open." (I wonder if all missionaries do this. It would have been interesting with parents there. I'm sure my parents LOVED it.)
• "Me and Jess stayed up talking for several hours, probably until about 2 or 3 a.m.  She is wishing that she was going home when Sister McCurdy is leaving.  In about three weeks.  She really loves the KK area which makes me excited to see it." (KK is Jess' last city she served in and Sister McCurdy is her MTC companion. I remember being so excited to go home and then when it came down to it I was absolutely terrified and had kind of convinced myself that I could have lived in Bydgoszcz the rest of my life.) 
• "So hot here Lauren.  I don't know if you could handle it!  Seriously.  I think you would be miserable.  And Jess agreed. " (So glad I'm not there. Seriously. It's 75 here and I'm practically sweating on the metro. I think I was meant to live in Canada, or Scandinavia or something. Back to Poland?)
• "Today, we went to the Hindu temple that is in the caves.  Don't know if you've seen Jess' pictures from there or not.  Very impressive and so cool.  The also have all these steps that you have to climb up, which reminded me of the pilgrimage site in Montreal where the pilgrims climb all those steps with their knees.  They do that here too but only at a certain time of the year.  But it was unlike anywhere I had ever been before!" (I took a Humanities of Asia class at BYU so I'm pretty jealous of this. I think I really just like religions. I think they're so interesting.)
• "We are bringing home some cool stuff." (Yes! I love presents! I'm really hoping for maybe another house dress--read: mumu--and maybe something else pretty.)

Anyway, I'm pretty excited to go home. And I have a feeling this next week is going to draaaaaaag on!

And thank you Hayley Clark (Jess' cute trainer, pictured above) for posting these pictures on Facebook so I could steal them later!

5:00 in Singapore

And my parents are with Jess! They're eating dinner at the Mission Home! 

And she'll be home in a little over a week!

I'm forgetful

Carly was so good to point out to me a couple days ago that I double posted about my last New York trip. Please see THIS post that I wrote a few days ago, and THIS post that I wrote in February for more information. Oops!

I have tons of stuff to post about but am having issues posting at home. Work really is a good place to post. But, when I want to post a picture it only works if I have them online. I suppose I could bring my camera/cord to work, but do I really want to have a bunch of pictures on my work computer? It's already slow enough.

On a really sad note, I dropped my computer yesterday and it's having issues. Not bad issues, just little issues. Like funny noises. But I think that's because of the workout DVD stuck in the disc drive that I'm kind of embarrassed about... (I don't really want anyone to see that I have Shape Magazine's Bikini Body workout in there--I wish it was something cooler like... hm... I don't know, something cool though.) I need to take it to a Mac Doctor. Maybe I'll call and get an appointment today...

PS- My parents are picking Jess up in two weeks. TWO WEEKS! That's 14 days! And when she finally gets back to Oregon, I'll be flying in a couple days later. I.cannot.wait!

29 and 38

Note: If your name is Michael B. Do not read this post.






29 Days until my parents see Jess in Singapore.



38 days until I see Jess in Eugene.



Am I excited?



A little would be an understatement.



(Thank you Jess for posting these hilarious pictures on Facebook ages ago.
They still make me laugh.
And apologies to Michael B for spoiling his no count down rule.
Because lets be honest Michael, there's no way you didn't read this post.)

P-day

When I got onto the Metro this morning at L'Enfant Plaza I found a seat on the train. It was quickly vacated when I saw three sister missionaries and two elders get on. It was P-day and they were off to Arlington Cemetary to say good-bye to the "dying missionaries" (i.e. the missionaries who were going home).

And since today is sister Jess' P-day and I got a lovely email from her, I started thinking about my mission and P-days and all that jazz (because duh, we know I think about my mission).

Here is a quick note from her email:

I forgot to tell you last time about the deaf and mute guy that I contacted on the bus a couple weeks ago who's turned out to be awesome. I saw him with a huge smile when I got on the bus, which isn't that abnormal because a white girl with super curly light colored hair in the midst of a bus/city/country/region of the world completely filled with Asian people who range from super white skinned Chinese, to really dark Indians and East Indonesians, is always a sight for everyone to see... actually I'm knid of getting sick of it, especially at the bus terminal where everyone stares at us and sometimes make really inappropriate comments to us. The latest thing I've discovered is that all the men who work for the buses have a nickname for me: "rambut" which means, "hair" in Malay. Wow. Anyways, so this guy I sit next to him and he immediately turns away which is weird considering he was just smiling insanely, and then i start to talk to him, but he turns back and motions that he can't hear or speak, so I act out writing and he can, so we started writing back and forth and he wanted to meet again! So we met him at the church that week and had a lesson on the white board basically, watched the Joseph Smith video and he loved it so much. Lessons with him are awesome, becasue he takes notes and what we write on the board/half act out, and he tries really really hard to understand what we're teaching him, and you can literally SEE when he really gets something which is awesome.

And since I was thinking of my own P-days and wishing for one. Here are some lovely pictures from those lovely days.

(click to enlarge)

First row: Katowice-snow hike with branch; Krakow; Auschwitz
Second row: Warsaw-Majdanek; Lunch with sisters; bowling
Third row: Bydgoszcz-Baltic sea; Torun; Gdansk

I wish I could just take a P-day now! Oh wait, those don't happen in real life. Well, then, how about a sick day?

PS-I put the label nostalgia on this one, but I'm not really wishing to go back on my mission. I don't hardly think I wished to go back the minute I walked off that plane. Perhaps the nostalgia is for Poland and simpler times. Perhaps it's to go back and have the camaraderie of being on a mission. Perhaps it's missing all my mission friends, Americans and Poles. Who knows, but the nostalgia is not me wishing to go back and have grueling days of rejection.

I got another mission story for you...

My sister Jess gets home from her mission April 14th and I get to go out to Oregon for a couple days after she gets back with my parents from Malaysia! Hooray! I'm so excited I keep thinking it's already March and have to stop and realize it's still February! (Luckily it's a short month!) Anyway, in Jess' letter this week she talks about Elder Nelson coming to East Malaysia where she's serving. She got to go down to the first city she served in where the conference was being held. This brought back a memory of Elder Holland coming to my mission in Poland.

I was serving in Warsaw at the time which meant that I got to go to both the meeting for the missionaries with Elder Holland, but if I had an investigator come, we got to go to the member meeting too. Two of our favorite investigators came: Kasia and Zbyszek (though two Elders asked if they could sit with us and our investigators since their investigator didn't come but they wanted to stay for the meeting and they didn't want to get in trouble for being there without an investigator, so they "borrowed" one of ours and I agreed because I felt bad for them).

Anyway, Zbyszek really liked us. He loved having us over. We always got fruit tea or some kind of compote when we visited. We had met him because I wanted to tract the street the American Branch President lived on in hopes that we could get to know them and maybe they would invite us in for dinner or something fantastic like that. (Oh the things you do when you never get dinner appointments or invitations to visit by members.) Actually, I really liked the name of the street: ul. Truskawska, or as I liked to call it by it's English name for some reason- actually, I probably thought it was funny- Strawberry Street. Well, we didn't know where the Branch President lived and if they had been home and we had found them, we never would have met Zbyszek. After ringing his gate bell and yelling from the street to the door (we were separated by a short brick wall, a gate and a small yard), Zbyszek realized that we weren't "JDubbs" and he talked to us for a while, still from door to sidewalk, but asked us back the next day.

Fast forward a few weeks Elder Holland is coming, Zbyszek has been making progress. We invite him to come and tell him it's a big deal. Zbyszek shows up all the way up in North Warsaw from his house down in South Warsaw (it was probably a pretty long drive, I know it took about an hour by public transportation so it was probably about 45 min for him). He wore a sport coat that was a too small to fit over his big belly. He joked about how long it had been since he wore it and that he had definitely gotten fat.

So today, as I read Jess' letter about Elder Nelson coming to visit, I couldn't help think of Zbyszek standing outside the chapel in Warsaw wearing his navy sport jacket with the gold buttons that was clearly tight on him, and remember the overwhelming happiness I felt seeing him there and seeing him in his jacket and knowing he took what we said seriously.

And clearly Poland missionaries get excited about the simplest things!

(PS: I know I already posted the picture HERE. Zbyszek is one of my favorite people I met in Poland. And, an unfortunate side note about him, I was transferred to Bydgoszcz and he stopped meeting with the missionaries shortly after. He didn't like the idea of paying tithing...)