Back to School

More and more I recognize my life as a series of repeating cycles. Round and round they go, the circles moving slowly upwards to include some new patterns each year (like sending kids off to college or on missions, eventually it will become marriages, etc.), and some few of the lower circles gradually drop off (for the first time in twenty-plus years there have been no pregnancies or sleepless nights with nursing newborns in the repeats), still, the bulk of the familiar seasons presenting themselves to me again and again have become incredibly familiar. Single events, troubles and worries, celebrations and upheavals all exist, but they seem to exist ... within this series of repetitions. 

And here we are with one of them:

Daisy still hadn't even met her roommates when we left her, but Abe sent us a few quick photos of his morphing into college life. 

Abe and his roommate (they'd never met before, but both were serving foreign, got called home, and then reassigned to different Vegas missions, and the next morning they were off on a run exploring the campus together so it seems to be a good arrangement!):

And here he was his first morning on campus -- meeting up with two companions and a sister missionary from his mission. Happy reunion.

And here he is in the MTC "parking" and with the first district he taught. (He substituted in another district the other day. One of the Elders was the little brother of Abe's best friend from kindergarten in WA. Small world):

And, with all this college-ing (full of roughly one million math classes of all things) and MTC teaching, I'm also glad to see that Abe is still not too mature for a little silliness. Here is a flyer he made just for kicks and left in his dorm hall (looks like it was a success) and Abe with his cousin Zach at the "true blue foam slip and slide".

(Daisy, if you're reading this, perhaps it's time you texted me some more photos? Hm? Your roommates? Hanging out with cousin Allie? Life at the BYU Store? Your latest Tolkien readings? [Daisy has a fun Tolkien class this semester.] You and Abe in your shared math class? [That's a funny thing. Abe and Daisy, it turns out, have a math class together. But neither of them knew it until they walked into the class! It's especially funny because Daisy helped me register Abe. So it would seem we might have known. But apparently that class is later in the day and she thought Abe had dropped it because of his work schedule. It makes me happy they have it together.)

Anyway, a few other photos unrelated to this season of the school year beginning.

Mette has a very difficult time waiting to tell me anything ... ever. And that has made for some very awkward phone conversations with doctor's offices, etc. Particularly because the insistence on responses and acknowledgment increase in volume exponentially the longer I try to hold them off. Luckily she recently embraced my suggestion that she hand me notes if I'm on the phone and can't talk to her for a moment. Here are several recent ones:

And here is a slightly less charming note ... but somewhat humorous all the same. (Particularly when one considers that Hans would not have actually been able to read this warning.):

Speaking of Hans, here he is ... sleeping in a suitcase. (?):

And asleep other places:

He's wearing a fireman outfit in that last picture. Mike recently let him get it for Halloween when the two of them were at Costco together:

And, threatening notes or not, Hans has benefited from having Jesse as an older brother. Not only did Jesse recently 3D print him a cool little dinosaur, but when I complimented Hans on his great building skills the other day, he said, "Yah. I learned them from watching Jesse." 

And a small pile of photos to end with. (Starling is probably Shasta's truest friend. Speaking of Starling, the other day she said to Summer [and then later to Jesse], in the dearest little voice imaginable, "Summer, you're so cute!" We were all delighted to hear her say it. But we shouldn't have been surprised. After all she hears it said to herself -- from all of her siblings over anything she does -- about 100 times a day.)