Springtime is coming, is coming today...

This is my letter for today:  and I am a little reluctant, because there is so much to say and so little time.  Now I know what it is like to be a misionera joven (young missionary!)  I give praise to nieces who can make me laugh and cry and sing in a three minute period as they write their guts out during a 30 minute internet stab.  

Sister Wagner told me she could read my blog because she was allowed to take a picture of it, and read it later.  Hooray for resourceful sisters!

Maria told me that her life is dreary, because she wants to write to her missionary friends who send their address and beg her to write.  This is for those of you in that boat, who think, I haven't written, I need to write, I have zero time.

This is Nefi, keeping Dia de Reposa (day of rest!)
(so much to dream about, so little time)

The trick is to be wrapped up in whatever season you are in!

My take:  I love a one liner.  I love a hello.  I love a highlighted sentence from a previous letter with the reason that someone liked it.  I like a "like" on my Face book page post, or simply remembering how much we love you, serving the best you can as you watch water travel under the bridge--and wish for time to write. 

Speaking of Maria and BYU and bridges and boats, I have a quick picture of the Colorado Concrete Canoe Contest, 

and Maria's claim that because there was only a single "deduction" for duct tape, the bottom of their whole canoe got plastered, and I am guessing that could be a description for some of us, who are taping as we go, trying to finish our "four minutes" with a semblance of valor (referring to how long it takes to race a skeleton sled in the Olympic runs, Elder Gary Stevenson, Conference April 2014.) 

And for those of you who were blinking last week, we are proud abuelos (grandparents)  to a healthy, 9 pound 8 ounce baby Kevin with copious quantities of pelo rojo--red hair.                                                                                                                       

(Amidst many birthdays--if you have time on your hands, you can climbafamilytree123 and read them all!)  Meanwhile, we will share William's comments of the week.  When he went to the hospital to see his new brother, his eyes jumped from his mother, to his new little brother, then back to his mom :  

"Oh!  He got out!" 

I told him later that we would visit him, two weeks from Friday.

"Friday, Saturday, Sunday..." 

"What do you do on Sunday?"

"I go to Primary."

"What do you do in Primary?"

"I sing."

"What do you sing?"

"Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam."

"Are you a Sunbeam?" 

"I am not a Sunbeam.  I am a Child of God!"  

No identity problem with us.  Seattle cousins visited Arizona sunshine this week.

 

 Auntie Amber scooped up Savanna for some special time, before she and her sweetheart take the world by the tail, advancing toward flight school.

 

 Our Monroe munchkins made it from Mount Vernon tulip time to hiking and more.

But our blog today is really for grand kids who like bugs.  It took courage for me to get these pictures because they required putting a reference point nearby, namely a finger, which is creepy! One time wearing a different name tag, I worked to catch a Florida palmetto bug to send to a friend at college.

 All was a go, until the insect crawled on my hand! Yikes!!

So here is our walking bug.  I like this little friend...he is a little like Grandpa, thin, tall, and good at walking!  

This little friend is called a gorgojo--he likes beans and rice.  One day, I spotted a gorgojo on a lady's clothing,  as I was trying to help her remember something in the temple.  I had a big decision--to kill the gorgojo or to "let it go." There are some oft used words in the scriptures--and it came to pass!  So I did!

Speaking of friends, on Dad's birthday, our friend Laura Barrientos, and her mother and daughters and grandchildren invited us to their home for a beautiful tilapia luncheon.  Melissa (curls, music teacher) fried the fish.

Behind Sister Barrientos is a tapestry that she spent weeks embroidering to celebrate our new temple.

               

I was thinking this week, why I love who I get to work with, and about the word community, how its root is from the verb "to commune."  A group with whom we associate that labors together to be lifted closer to one another and a common Maker.  What a lovely thing to treasure in family and friends far and near.  May our hearts be buoyed and the corners of our smiles curl as we see color,  

                                                                      springtime,

 and remember the meaning of birth, 

the promise of Easter! 

Much love,

Laurene and Val