Amazing

Dear Colin,

Despite the last two years of literally no exercise, today I ran a 5K.







You should be proud. I almost didn't make it. Emily is a good cheerleader.

Remember how you laughed when I told you I was running? Well I made it. :)

Coming Back

Dear Colin,

I miss you. And I have so many things I want to do when you get home. 101 in fact, in honor of 101 days deployed. :)

1. Make lobster
2. Hold hands
3. Eat sushi
4. Eat Mexican
5. Bake chocolate chip cookies
6. Play the piano while you cook dinner
7. Play the mandolin while you play the guitar
8. Listen while you play the guitar
9. Play video games
10. Play board games
11. Play card games
12. Build a fort
13. Find a place to live
14. Go to the smithsonian museums again
15. Go to the temple together
16. Go to church together
17. Do laundry together
18. Sleep in
19. Cuddle
20. Dance in the kitchen
21. Watch Once Upon a Time with you
22. Watch Downton Abbey with you
23. Watch Clue with you
24. Watch the new Hunger Games with you
25. Visit family
26. Buy a camera
27. Buy a new car
28. Buy new phones
29. Decide what we are doing with our lives
30. Make babies
31. Go to New York and see a musical
32. Go to Disneyland
33. Visit friends in Florida
34. Visit friends in Connecticut
35. Go to the beach
36. Make ice cream
37. Make s'mores
38. Tell you how much I love you
39. Take family photos
40. Take an Argentine tango lesson
41. Go country dancing
42. Go grocery shopping together
43. Make hot chocolate
44. Kiss your face
45. Share toothpaste
46. Share a bed
47. Hug you
48. Babysit for friends and family
49. Get a calling in church again
50. Watch Christmas movies: Home Alone 1&2, White Christmas, Elf. You know, classics.
51. Plan a trip. To anywhere.
52. Drive down GW Parkway
53. Drop you off at work
54. Pick you up at work
55. Visit you at work
56. Tell you how much I love you
57. Watch a sunset
58. Watch the planes take off at Reagan airport
59. Buy you some new clothes
60. Get in your way
61. Let you get in my way
62. Listen to a book together
63. Nap
64. Make stuffed tomatoes
65. Make Kristen's black eyed pea salsa salad
66. Make peanut butter cookies
67. Make bread
68. Make pies, all kinds
69. Make dinner for the missionaries
70. Eat mac and cheese
71. Eat mac and cheese while watching Iron Chef America
72. Sing in ward choir
73. Sit next to you in sacrament meeting
74. Kiss your face again
75. Wake up to you kissing me goodbye in the morning
76. Wake up to your snoring
77. Wake up to you laughing
78. Watch a sunrise with you
79. Go camping
80. Graduate
81. Visit Berkeley Springs, WV
82. Be together and say nothing
83. Fall asleep at a decent hour
84. Fall asleep holding hands
85. Read children's books together at the store
86. Walk down King Street
87. Make a new recipe
88. Pick out what shoes go with your green pants
89. Have you pick out my shoes
90. Watch you shave
91. Sit in the passenger seat while you drive
92. Listen to you sing
93. Put my head on your shoulder
94. Be the little spoon
95. Make watch the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble on DVD
96. Make Hawaiian haystacks. Or Mongolian dinner.
97. Greet you at the door when you come home from work
98. Keep holding your hands
99. Keep kissing your face
100. Keep hugging you
101. Keep telling you how much I love you

There is more. But 101 is a nice place to stop for now.

Love

Almost Complete

Dear Colin,

This week is halfway thru the deployment! Halfway! It is downhill from here. :)

I thought I would celebrate by sharing some of my favorite moments of the last three months.

Remodeling my parents home. It's a whole new house now.

Hanging out with family- Laina's dance recital was lovely.

Bear Lake!

Seeing Emily perform

Face Timing with you

Hot summer days with trampolines and ice

Boating.

Making ninja-bread cookies

Hanging out with friends in DC- I was there when this cutie learned to crawl.

Florida

Tour. The people made it worth it.

Emily.

Beaches in Maine with Dana and her family

Lobster.

Boston

Connecticut with the Rawcliffes. This is the river my phone fell into. Twice. 

 Also.  Just because we talked about the horror, please watch this.  :)

I love you. 

Cameras Part 2

Dear Colin, 

Remember these people?  They are some of my favorites.  

Crazy

Dear Colin,

I'm watching all of the Harry Potter movies with Emily and Josh before going to London in October. 

Remember how Emily and I had told each other we would never read the series? It was just weird. And I had no interest in reading them. Then in ninth grade I was in English on a Friday, where the first half of class was reading time. I had forgotten a book, and someone in class had brought two, one of which was Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. A bit grudgingly, I started reading it. 

When I finished reading the first chapter, my first thought was, "Oh dear. Emily is going to be so mad."

And I was hooked. Just like that. And now I am an enthusiastic member of the Harry Potter generation. 

That's all...

Cameras Part 1

Dear Colin, 

Remember your promise last Christmas that if I take a photo a day you will get me a new camera body?  I've been working on it.  Doing ok.  I have missed a couple of days the last couple weeks because I no longer have a really easy way of taking photos, say with a drowned IPhone.

Anyway, earlier this summer I took my good friend's family photos.  They are a beautiful family.  These are a few of my favorites...

 

One day our family photos will look like that...

love

Basics

Dear Colin,
I recently had a conversation with a friend where we spent a few hours talking about different aspects of our testimonies of different Christian faiths. I wasn't eloquent. I felt like I was trying to describe the flavor of salt. But I think the spirit was there.
While we both believe in Christ and His atonement, there were many things we did not have in common.  As I think more about it, I realize that the difference is in the basics of the LDS faith.  Her questions and concerns dealt with deep doctrinal things that we take for granted, just because we know the truth about the basics.  It was like she was trying to understand calculus before truly understanding addition. You can't logically understand salvation and justice and mercy without understanding first the love of a Heavenly Father and His plan for His children.
The thing that made me the most sad was her belief that you are not a child of God until you accept His gospel. You are fallen until you accept Christ and His teachings, then becoming one of God's children.  Perhaps she was thinking more along the lines of becoming a disciple of Christ by accepting the gospel, but with her vernacular it was becoming the "children" of God.  Either way, the idea made me sad.

That is why I love the gospel- it is simple.  I am a child of God and He loves me, whether or not I choose to follow Him.  

And I miss primary.  That is where the very basics are taught. And I get to listen to sweet testimonies of the gospel basics that are not confused by the deeper issues.

I love you.  And I love the gospel.  It's true.