It’s Hump Day!

Our middle son, Tyler, has been serving a mission in Peru for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He left for the Missionary Training Center on November 7, 2012.  Today is the half way point—it’s all downhill from here!

Except.  I don’t think he’s quite as excited about the prospect of coming home in a year.  This is what we said when we congratulated him on a year served:  “So it's not my year mark yet so you can't even say that yet.  Everyone just hold your horses, I'm still in the first half of my mission.”

Um. OK. Whatever. 

I was walking with my friend this morning—we’ve walked together for years—and I told her it was a year today since Tyler left.  I saw her think about it and I immediately cut her off:  “Don’t say, ‘It seems like he just left!’”  I could just see her thinking about it.  She smiled and said, “Ok, I won’t.”

In fact, we miss him more than we can say.  Missionaries can send and receive email once a week.  We live for those Monday emails!  Other than that, we get phonecalls (or Skype!) twice a year on Mother’s Day and Christmas.

When I share with other mothers not of my faith that my son is in Peru for two years and we only get to personally talk twice a year, the response is universally the same:

“I could never do that.”

But they could if they knew what I knew.  There was an interesting article I read this week (you can find it HERE).  I agree, but I think this is only part of it, at least for me, since I’m not quite as fully evolved and pesky practical matters always get into my head to join the party.  Anyway, that’s a post for another day. 

Today  I want to celebrate Tyler’s journey to date (the Bachelor/Bachelorette tv show has totally ruined the word “journey”.   Now it always just seems trite and cheesy.  Don’t ask me how I know that). 

Missionaries demonstrating their geography skills!

Peru! (December 11, 2012)

What it’s all about--this is the moment right here!  Making covenants to follow Christ.

Iquitos

Local Cuisine

Don’t look too closely…

Making friends. (Watch your hand, monkey! Someone might want to put it into soup)

Too cute for words.

Sometimes it rains.

Thumbs up! (the quintessential missionary pose)

Nueva Cajamarca

Old school baptism.

That your burden might be light.

It’s been a year of discovery, a year of faith, a year of service, a year of love.

Matthew 10:39 

He that findeth his life shall lose it:  and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Egads! It Might be Seafoam!

I’ve wanted to redo the downstairs bathroom nearly since the day after it was last painted in 2010.  I had picked out a moss green and let the painter paint the ceiling the same color.  The small half-bath was totally overwhelmed by the dark color.  The vanity was a natural maple color, very light by comparison.  Also, the painter, in his haste to complete the job in that airless space, used the outside trim color of white to touch up the baseboards that were clearly not white.   Swiss Coffee and white can not be more different!  (OK, I may be a little bitter about that little snafu, but I was done with the painters by the time they left.  If you want something done right, yada yada).   

It was not a happy place.

Lately I have been drawn to the colors in this placemat (minus the smear of guacamole or whatever that green smudge is):

I love the combination of turquoise blue and cocoa brown, so I decided to use those colors to redo the bathroom.  I spent weeks with paint chips on the wall.  I picked one (that incidentally no one else preferred) because it exactly matched the bottom left color in the placemat and would brighten up the space.

I started by righting a wrong and touching up the trim in the correct color:  Swiss Coffee.  I also repainted the ceiling in the same color.  Good thing it’s small, my arms got really tired!

Then I painted the walls.  Do you know how painful it is to paint a small bathroom?  There’s corners and edges and fixtures and….jeesh!  I had to be a contortionist to get some of the areas!

So then it was this:

And all of the sudden, my contemporary and trendy turquoise looked decidedly….

SEAFOAM GREENISH

Yikes!  I had visions of bad 1990’s southwest decorating, the allure of which I admit I have previously succumbed to.

This is not my house, but I may or may not have had a living room decorated very similarly at one time.  Incidentally, this photo comes from a website named uglyhousephotos.com.   Ouch. 

Could it be that my modern day turquoise harkens back to seafoam green? (Not to self: do not buy mauve towels!)

My family all nodded yes, assertively.  I dragged all my friends through that small bathroom to boost my confidence that the color was NOT, in fact, seafoam.  They asserted that the color was definitely turquoise and oh so beautiful and very NOW.  (My friends also tell me my butt doesn’t look big even though I know it does.  I think friends should do that for friends and I was kind of banking on that.  Just saying.)

Did I mention how painful it is to paint a half bathroom?

No choice in my mind but to continue on.

So I painted the vanity cocoa brown and added brown towels:

OK.  Much better.  It will have to do until the next trendy color comes along.  (Because, by then I will have forgotten how painful it is to paint a small bathroom).  Still could be slightly pastel.

I blame the Swiss Coffee.