I know you wish you were me

Friday's trip to Target:
His reaction to being told "no":
Oh wait, he's not all bad:


There's a ton of stuff I need to fill you in on--San Francisco trip, Emma's birthday and baptism, paint we watched dry--fascinating stuff! But all the pictures are on Kevan's computer, and neither he nor his computer is in this state. He's off eating in restaurants, spending leisurely afternoons in bookstores, seeing the sights, holding babies I don't get to hold, and other things that make him a big fat jerk. Ok, technically he's "participating in pre-In-Country-Training briefings and training," in D.C., but when he tells me what he's doing all I hear is, "I held Matty and you didn't, nee ner nee ner!" He even texted me a picture of him holding the wee bairn, just to taunt me. I have chosen to take the high road and forgive him. But first I replied "U R a big fat jerk."*

But I digress. I'll catch you up on all the fun stuff we've all been up to--not just the fun stuff Kevan's doing without us--when he brings his computer home (ok, ok, I guess we'll be happy to see him, too). For now, I'll try to paint a picture of what our life is like with mere words: AAAAAHHH! We are about two weeks out from leaving California and six away from leaving the country. Two of our three moving shipments have gone already, and all we have left in the house is the stuff that's going in our luggage and the stuff that's going into storage. Fortunately, the apartment we'll live in in Cairo is furnished, so we still have beds and such. Some of the kids don't have sheets, we don't have a can opener, and we're using beach towels, but it's all good. And it's all going to be over in about 10 days, so we'll muddle through somehow. After they take the last of our stuff, we get to go stay at a ranch owned by a very nice man in our ward who is generously putting us up there until we leave. Then we'll head to Utah for a few weeks--with a side trip to New Mexico for a family reunion (or, if you're getting technical, "reunoin")--before leaving for Egypt at the end of June.

We're actually doing pretty well, considering the lack of a can opener (how did the pioneers ever survive?!?), and we're getting anxious to start this next part of our lives. We're in a weird limbo of excited-to-go, not-ready-to-leave. We love it here so much, and we have so many good friends that we are sad to leave, but we're also really excited for all the new things we'll be experiencing for the next year. Shakespeare had it right with that "sweet sorrow" garbage.

*I am not actually as bitter as I sound; I'm happy Kevan is able to do some fun things in between his training stuff. But honestly, if you saw how stinkin' cute that baby is, you'd join me in the name calling! Also, it needs to be stated for the record that I am morally, fundamentally, and vehemently opposed to any use whatsoever of anything even resembling text speak like "u r," but in this case it was used solely for humor purposes and therefore doesn't count (because you know I'm all about sacrificing my standards for funny!).

For Robin

Hurry home, friend.