Mothers Day 2018

On Mothers Day eve, this made me happy. Freestone signing all the papers for Cincinnati and the BW summer intensives.

My favorite thing about this is that Tziporah said that her mom is happy when she "Sees me." And that I always say "I love you."

Ptolemy is the sweetest.

Main Street Music Kaysville had a big Mothers Day sale with some adorable ukulele gift bags. We had a good week. I sold a bumch of violins, too. One to my mom's cousin, Susan Comish. She is so sweet. I loved seeing her!

Sunday, Mothers Day, started out with church. Oh wait, back up. Scott and I went to Park City Saturday night to steal some relaxing moments. There were no bishopric meetings on Sunday, so we had to take advantage of Scott not having to be at the church by 6:30. We had a nice time and were home by 9 for church with our fam.

After church, the Kings came over for lunch. I love relaxing with them on a Sunday. We're lucky we all live so close together.

Hermana Dopp called! Seeing her beautiful face made my heart sing. She looks happy and seems like the same perfect Ruby who left two months ago. (Only two months?!?) She says that they are meeting tons of people and using their Spanish a lot. She traveled to New Hampshire by herself and met her companion when she got there. The comp had been called English speaking but was asked to learn Spanish several months ago. She became a Spanish-speaking sister when Ruby arrived. Ruby had to leave the MExico MTC at 1:00 in the morning and didn't arrive in New Hampshire until 5 pm. Driving to the airport, customs and three layovers. The very second she met her mission president, he walked her up to some strangers and introduced her, telling them what missionaries do. Welcome to the New Hampshire Manchester mission! I guess they work hard!

Ruby said it was nothing close to how hard Ghana was, and that Ghana prepared her for the mission in a lot of ways. I bet her life in New England seems pretty darn cushy. No ants on your food, no flies in your Coke, and I'm sure she likes the faster-paced lifestyle of her home country. I'm thankful she went to Ghana and stuck it out when it was so tough; when she was sicker than a dog, living in what she called "A giant litter box." The school was directly on the beach, built in the sand, and humans and dogs alike were free to poop wherever. On the plus side, the people she met were incredible. Some of them will have a life-long impact on her. I'm proud of Ruby. She's a strong person, yet so tender and sweet.

We talked for 45 minutes, and it went by in a flash!

Next party: the Dopps at Nikki's. Everyone loves gathering at Nikki and Clint's beautiful home. Freestone and Golda were working on their "heartfelt" Instagram posts for me.

Teens hanging out. We have the best cousins! And the best families. On this Motheres Day, I am grateful for every aspect of motherhood and every mother who has positively influenced me. Especially my mom and Marlene. Zero complaints. They're noth perfect and I love them.

Fifth Grade Maturation

For heightened levels of awkwardness, try taking your 11yo exchange student to the fifth grade maturation program. She kept whispering, "But what is 'blood' means?"

We both deserved a soda afterwards.

Dinner at the Keheermans

These cuties and I went to see our friend Eliza Lord as the lead character in Milan at her school. She was great! Tiffany, her mom, adopted Eliza from China through the same agency at the same time as Scott and I did. We didn’t travel together, but we’ve always stayed in touch. Eliza was in my ballet class last year and I loved her!

Saturday, Golda and I hung up a bunch of new ukulele hangers. We spent like 30 minutes deciding which ukes got to be in the rainbow. I love it!

Saturday, Vilina was invited to the Keheermans for dinner, and the rest of us were invited too. I told them we had to leave at 6:15 because we were going to Stella Wadsworth’s Book 10 cello recital. I was worried that they would fix us a big feast and it would take a long time, and we would have to eat and run. And even though I told them I had to leave at 6:15, that is exactly what happened. The Uighur polo, the traditional dish of their people, was insanely delicious. I wish we could have stayed longer! I felt so rude leaving, but it was 6:55 in Draper and the cello recital started at 7 in Bountiful, so we stayed as long as we possibly could.

Miraculously, we were not too late for the recital. Stella played brilliantly. She is an incredible musician. Book 10 is a big accomplishment.

Yes, we did stop at Fiiz on the way because we were picking up Freestone and it was right there. You know how it goes.

And this was just the first of many courses.

The best kids ever.

Baby Dilkeena was born on Ruby’s birthday, JAnuary 26. Ruby was actually babysitting the other two girls at the hospital when the baby was born. I don’t know how to spell Dilkeena, but I do know that Ruby decided how it should be spelled on her birth certificate, because Kerman wasn’t sure how it would translate spelling-wise from Uighur to English. It’s a cute name! Their mo is Dilnur and the other two girls are Dilfuz and Dilrusse. So cute!

Freestone is good with babies. He is always trying to get them to do ballet, though. Ha ha

Dilfuz

Dilrusse

And polo, the national dish of the Uighers, even though they don’t have a nation. Their language and culture are very similar to Turkey, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

Vilina slept overnight and when I went back Sunday night to get her, she had eaten so much that she couldn’t even sit up straight in the car. Her torso wouldn’t bend! Ha ha. She loved staying and playing and speaking her first language. It’s fun to have these guys in our lives.