Bad News

Monday is the day we get emails from my brother. We sit around all morning with our computers or phones waiting waiting waiting. I usually write Sunday night, summing up my week, telling him about the goings on back here at home, and sometimes I have to be the bearer of bad news. Like this week. This is what I said:

One of your IKEA bamboo stalks has gone the way of all the earth. Dad had to put it to rest. Forever. Just one. Weird, right? The other one is fine, just lonely. I hope you were sitting down for that.

Also...

Mom's car got smashed this week. Twice. The first time, she was backing out of a parking spot at the temple and she hit not one, but two yellow posts. To make matters worse, she was backing out to let someone in, so they witnessed the car crunching debacle in its entirety. The very next day in the Dan's parking lot (it was snowing--remember how I said it's still winter here? In April?) another car hit her. The back bumper was falling off. The tire scraped the rim when you turned the corner. It's getting fixed as I type. The silver linings: All those dents that happened in the Olympus Parking lot? Gone-zo! Lining Two: All of this, and not once has she hit the Howell's car, which is more than a lot of us can say. What a blessing.
There were happy tidbits included as well, like how we surprised Papa at his office for his birthday. We took him a sandwich from Grove Market (which was more of a mountain than a meal) and ate apple pie in the Clark B. Fetzer Memorial Dining Room (á propos, no?) while Baby Naomi sat on Brian's lap. Afterward she did her fishy face (which I am rather proud of, seeing as I worked on it with her for weeks) and she clapped hooray for Papa's Birthday. So amidst the bad, there is lots of good.

the brownies just weren't as Rich

Yesterday I made my brother's famous brownies for company. Those familiar with his famous brownies agreed they just weren't the same. I followed the recipe exactly. I wonder what his secret is.

Speaking of my bro, we posted a video for him here, but I think everyone should see it. Count it as your daily dose of cuteness. Who doesn't need more of that?*

*Three seconds in is my very most favorite part. I mean, if I absolutely had to choose.
{I've hit rewind about a hundred times today.}

Spring in Seattle

My brother sent this photo he took at Pike Place today. I love the daffodils blooming on the rooftop. It's definitely spring in Seattle.

Mailboxes, etc.

I have my brother's mission address memorized. Not just the main mission address, but the one to his current apartment, which may or may not change in a few weeks. He lives on Black Nugget Road, which rhymes with a phrase we used to make him say a lot when he was little. He said it really fast and it made us laugh really hard: chicken in a bucket. Black Nugget--like chicken in a bucket--Street, apartment D3. We can hardly go a week without sending him a package. We joke that his companions must think we're crazy--that we miss him too much. One week he got three separate packages, one from my mom, one from me and one from my sister. With better communication, we could have saved on postage, but how fun would it be to come back after a long day walking in the city to find packages from home on your doorstep? (I guess you can add the mailman to the list of people who think we're crazy. And his neighbors.)

Luckily this week my mom and sister and I found out that we each had something to send, so we're using the same box. (Never mind it was just Christmas and he got at least four packages, plus a scripture a day from my mom.)

Here's the thing: we do miss him terribly, but there's no where else we'd rather he be. I listened to my mom tell a friend last night that perhaps the reason we're having a hard time without him is because it took him so long to get here. For so long it was just my sister and me. We wanted a little brother or sister so badly; I practically came out praying for a sibling. And, after nine years, we got one, in the form of this happy baby boy who is now 19 and on a mission and not a day goes by that we don't miss him. Whether he misses us back, we're not sure. And how long this package craze will keep up, I'm not sure. But right now we're going through bubble wrap like nobody's business.

Must Be Santa

Guess who else got to see Santa yesterday?

{Elder Kitchen, Big Guy in Red, Elder Fetzer and Bishop Balkman}
Happy St. Nicholas Eve! Hope you've rounded up your shoes
(and some carrots for St. Nicolas' horse)

Elder Rich: Seattle Bound

We're pretty proud of this kid around here.

To say I'm going to miss him is quite an understatement...