Sheesh! Whoever thought a 25-day training expedition was a good idea must have been crazy.
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| In the car at the airport after he finally came home! His flight came in at midnight; we were both tiiiiiired. |
Oh, and master the Rubix cube. For real. He could only watch TV for so long, surfing the net on his phone got old fast, and his work-supplied laptop couldn't be used to play games. So, desperate one day, he stopped at a Walmart and bought a Rubix cube. And now our kids think it's great fun to mix it up, hand it to him, and watch him solve it.
I, on the other hand, did not have time to master anything. I was too busy trying to keep things together while he was gone. I think I forgot half of what I was supposed to do and was late to the other half.
Our fridge broke. But not before going on the fritz and giving me serious heartburn as I transferred items to the freezer or my parents' house before finally breaking down and buying a new one.
Our van went all mental on us. One day, after many hours spent schooling children, going on errands, and soccer practices, as we were finally driving home, I realized the display in our Odyssey was frozen. When we got home it wouldn't turn off when I turned the car off. Even when I took the keys out of the ignition neither the display or lights would turn off! Not a good thing for our battery.
Marco ended up spending a few hours researching what was wrong, then he face-timed me as I reset the fuse. I was so tired when it was all done that I forgot to put the fuse lid back on the fuse box. It wasn't until a week later, when my dad was checking out the car to fix a battery issue that he noticed the lid had fallen into the vast interior of the inner workings of my van and melted a bit.
Awesome.
No worries, though! We now have a new fuse lid on the fuse box.
Did I mention that, before my dad realized the fuse box lid was gone I had already taken the car through the car wash? Niiiiiiice.
While Marco was gone we also had computer problems, I got an eye infection, a weird random seasonal allergy infection in my mouth (I don't recommend it; eating was seriously a pain), and my baby learned how to walk. Oh, and soccer season had started up for three of my kids (I had enrolled them long before we realized Marco would be gone to this training).
By the time he stepped off that plane, we were both exhausted.
And now I am seriously wondering how single moms even survive. Those ladies do everything I had to do, well, probably minus the homeschooling, PLUS work full-time jobs. I feel like I should make all the single moms I know dinner once a week or something because they have to be rockstars ALL THE TIME.
Liz, you are so amazing. I see you got published in LDS Living. Cool.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth: My wife and I are serving as a MLS (Member, Leader Support) couple as full time missionaries in our home stake. We were asked to speak last Sunday in Sacrament Service in one of our seven wards. I had prepared remarks for my part but changed after reading your article Thursday on "No Nametag Needed." Your experience was just exactly what the members needed to hear. On Saturday a gentleman that we had never met and lives close to us came to our home after I called him inquiring about an animal we suspected might belong to him. As we became acquainted I simply asked him if he and his family would like to join us in our worship service this Sunday. He declined explaining that they were active Catholics. We continued our conversation and parted as new friends. I shared this with the ward as an example of how simple it is to extend ourselves without being overbearing. A large number of people approached us afterwards including ward missionaries, asking for details of your article. Thanks so much. Elder and Sister Stout, Salt Lake City South Mission, Lone Peak Stake, Sandy, Utah.
ReplyDeleteElder and Sister Stout, thank you so much for taking the time to share your experiences! It's always fun and enlightening to learn how others are sharing the gospel. And it personally made me feel like all my angst over writing this article was worth it if even one person shared the gospel more.
DeleteIncidentally, I once had an FHE brother at BYU named Mike Stout; he was a great guy.