My Little Boys Are Gone - Hooray!!

My brother Dan is in the MTC in Birmingham, England and has sent several e-mails over the last two weeks he's been there. Already my baby brother has changed so much I cannot believe it. And today, my brother Rob enterd the MTC in Provo, UT to begin learning Italian and how to teach the Gospel in Rome, Italy.
To me, Rob and Dan are still the tag-alongs in a diaper and training pants. In my mind they are still shorter than me, and I am always just about to take them to Chuck-E-Cheese or Glen Echo. They still WANT to be around me all the time, and still give me slobbery kisses and still cry when they don't get their way. Sorry guys, you'll always be those "little boys" to me.
But, I am more proud of these two "little boys" than I know how to express. I'll miss them, but I could not want them to be anywhere else then where they are right now.
I LOVE you Rob and Dan, we all love you. You are always in our prayers, and on our minds.
The following is a large excerpt from Dan's last e-mail he sent and the last he will send from the MTC before he is sent out into the field:

So, I only have about four days left in the MTC. It's been a wild experience. I've found that I've been writing a lot in my journal ever since I got here. Every single day is packed with so much work and events that its easy to fill out the entries each day. I remember writing in my journal though the other night that I really love the work. It's hard, challenging, and continuous but it's truly unique and rewarding. Ever since I came here I've really been pounding the scriptures because I felt that was my biggest weakness. But Ether 12:27 has really come true for me as I now feel like I'm on my way to being strong in the scriptures. I'll quickly go through my normal schedules for the days here before I tell my big story for the week.
We wake up every morning at 6:30, take showers (which are surprisingly nice), and are down for breakfast by 7:00. From 7:30 to 9:30 we have personal and companion study. Then usually we have class from 9:30 to lunch at 12:30 PM. Then either we have a physical activity for a couple of hours or we go straight back to class. Dinner is at 5:00 PM. After dinner we clean, i.e. vacuum, clean bathrooms, etc. until we head back to class at around 6:15 PM. Sometimes we have devotionals and special meetings, but otherwise we split into two districts of ten missionaries and are in class. Every tuesday is prep day. We get to go to the temple every Tuesday, as its only a few hundred yards down the road. Just yesterday we finished Milestone 3, which was teaching at least two commandments out of lesson 4 for around 20 minutes. We were video-taped this time, along with the first milestone. Elder Duschletta and I taught our teacher Brother Gallagher, who had played a specific investigator. It was a great lesson. Here at the MTC it is all about improving but Brother Gallagher had hardly any criticisms. I know that I still have an unbelievable amount of room to progress but it's encouraging that my hard work here has been continually paying off.

Okay, now on to the real story. This last Thursday we had our first tracting experience. Here at the Preston MTC every missionary group gets one day where they have a real life tracting experience. On Thursday they drove us out to South Port, about 30 minutes away from the MTC, and dropped us off. Each companionship was given certain streets where they were meant to proselyte, and two hours to do so. As you can imagine I was fairly anxious, but surprisingly not nervous. Elder Duschletta was very nervous. He is an intelligent, kind person but he has a bit of a egotistical/scared mindset about him. We've worked through all that, however, and have had a truly successful companionship. Anyway, we were thrown out of the car and were real missionaries for about two hours. It was surreal. We were in a real English town. It was fairly small, rough, dirty, but uniquely pretty simply because of the rustic buildings. We knocked on a door, got no answer, and moved to the next. At this point I saw two young ladies walking their dogs across the street. I walked over to them and started talking to the one closest to me. It was awkward at first as I had to b-line to where they were. The first lady spoke to me but the other walked quickly up ahead. Her name was Lisa Sumner. She didn't believe in God but as I bore my testimony to her in the middle of the street, she stopped dead in her tracks and focused on me. I got her contact information and left her with a number she could call to receive a Book of Mormon. It was exciting. Unfortunately, we were then met with a lot of failure. We must have had at least 10 doors immediately slammed on us as we walked from door to door. Many of the town-houses (not nice town-houses by the way) had already been contacted by Jehovah Witnesses that very day. We gave a few doorstep lessons. One man, who was an agnostic spiritualist, gave me his information and took a Book of Mormon, promising to read and pray about it. I was a little disappointed, however, as we had not been able to get in to give a real lesson to anyone yet. The words that continued to sound in my head, however, were Brother Goble's about how as long as you are doing your best in the Lord's work, He is pleased. After receiving only three numbers, including Lisa's, we found ourselves with only about fifteen minutes left. We were on a quaint street named Land Lane where we had met three stringent Roman Catholics at three consecutive doors. Finally, I said that the next door would be the last as we wanted to finish the doors on Brook St. The door was all black, and didnt even have an address on it (unlike all the rest). We didn't realize at the time that it was the back door. Immediately after I knocked on the door, a sweet lady in probably her 60's opened the door. She had cleaning gloves on as she was doing the dishes. We talked to her for about a minute that the door about our message and asked if we could come inside (as we had done countless times before). She quickly responded, "Yes, yes, by all means. I only have about five minutes though." We were ecstatic. As we sat down we talked with her and got to know her a little better. She lived alone, except for her cat, and she had a daughter who lived in another section of England. She told us that she had become acquaintances with the Jehovah Witnesses who proselyted this area. I realized later that she let us in most likely because she was a sweet old lady simply looking for company. As we taught her the Restoration, however, her countenance completely changed. Her radio was on, and as I saw the Spirit begin to work on her, I asked her if we could turn it off. I could tell that she noticed something different in us. We went through the lesson, and she was greatly intrigued. When I told her Joseph Smith's account of the First Vision by memory I could see that she was nearly in tears. The Spirit was unbelievably strong during the entire lesson. During the lesson we handed her a Book of Mormon and had her promise to us that she would read and pray about it. I saw her eyes light up as she flipped through the pages. She was asking about all the different names in the book, asking if they were prophets. We finished with a prayer, and got all of her information. We committed her to another appointment but explained to her that it would be with different missionaries. She told us at the end that she was glad that we knocked at the back door because her doorbell is broken at the front door and she would not have heard it. After we said goodbye, Elder Duschletta and I high-fived. Her's was literally the last door we knocked on as it was now time to head back to the meeting point to be picked up. I felt a goodness that I'm not sure I've ever felt before. I know that my entire mission won't be full of successes like that but I am motivated more than ever to work as hard as I can.
Love,
Elder Callister

Put Her in a Pickle Jar

The day before yesterday I found a tiny sliver of a tooth in Sable's bottom gum. Darn it.
I knew it was coming, I mean she's been so slobbery that she could easily have filled a small wading pool by now. And she's been smacking her gums like an 85 year old whose dentures have come loose for weeks.
But still. . . I was wishing and hoping that just one of my children would obey and NOT grow up so fast.
To make it worse, last night Sable slept in her crib in Capri's (now Sable and Capri's) room. Till last night she's slept right beside me in a bassinet. I really didn't mean for her to stay in the bassinet for so long, 7 months to be exact. Rome and Capri never did, but I didn't want to put a tiny baby in with an older kid and have them wake each other up. Plus, I knew it would be much easier for me to have her close.
So yesterday, even though I didn't want to, I finally cleared all the clutter that had accumulated in Sable's crib so she could sleep in it (which by the way has been set up since before she was born). Jeff has been nagging me to do this for months now. Well not really nagging, that's not Jeff's style. He more would just softly mention it, over and over. Kind of like the tiny, persistant ladybugs we so often find in the house. It doesn't really bother you, you don't want to smash it, but it keeps on showing up in your living room. Until one day, you finally go and get a dixie cup and put it outside.
Usually at night, after we put Rome and Capri to bed. I go back to the couch and feed Sable. She falls asleep and I put her in her boppy, where she stays until I finally decide to go to bed myself and put her in her bassinet. But last night after I fed Sable, smelled her, and kissed her, I laid her in her own big crib and went back to sit on the couch and watch tv alone.
Even writing this now I feel the same knot in the back of my throat and the tiny tears at the corners of my eyes I felt last night. I missed her. I missed her next to me on the couch, and I missed her next to me in her bassinet. She was really only 25 feet away, but I felt like she was in a whole other world. And in a way, she was.
And, of course, she was happy in that world. Comfy, with lots more space she slept through the night and stayed asleep even after Capri got up in the morning. I on the other hand, found it VERY hard to fall asleep and laid awake for quite a while thinking, thinking, thinking.
With every baby, I know those kinds of moments are coming and I DREAD them. I always tell Jeff how much I will miss each one once they are big. And I do. I miss them each so much it hurts right down to my toes.
Last night, as I have times before when these moments hit, I thought about my own dad and what he used to say when my brothers and I were growing up. He'd say, "I wish I could put you in a pickle jar, and STOP you from getting bigger." Dad, I wish that too. So much. So much.

Pinewood Derby: Scouts and Outlaws

Friday was our ward Pinewood Derby. Not the REAL Pinewood Derby, mind you, it's just us regular adults who think it's still fun to make the cars for a ward activity. The guys get to relive their scouting days, and the girls (along with the non-scouting guys) get to experience it themselves. Of course our wards version of the derby is a far cry from the real yearly event.

The rules:
1. You must use the car kit provided.
2. There is NO weight limit
3. Even though you must use the kit provided, you don't have to use it the way it's intended. If you want to use other wheels you could just glue the included wheels somewhere on the car.

This is the third year of our ward "derby" and we've made a car for each year. The first year we paid tribute to The King with this car.

Last year they had a theme for the derby, it was "Scriptures". So we thought hard, and Jeff stayed up most of the night carving this car we called "Lehi's Dream Machine". It was pretty awesome and won us a ribbon for "Keeping most with the theme".

This year the theme was "Primary Songs". Visions of a popcorn covered car filled my mind. We considered putting Pres. Monson on a car and adding the words "Eat my dust", for Follow the Prophet. I nearly made a black car with the words "Elder Derby" serving in the Pinewood mission. But after looking through the Children's Songbook I found the perfect song and ended up with this car.


If you can't guess the song, then you need get your behind back in Primary and brush up on the old standards.
This year for the derby they decided to make two categories of cars. The regulation weight "Scout" cars, and the "Outlaw" cars that went over weight. We were obviously an outlaw car, those rocks were actually pretty heavy!
The derby was a lot of fun and altough we didn't win any awards for speed (one of the wheels didn't really turn because of a little accident with some super glue) we came away with another ribbon for "Most Clever".
Here's us watching the derby.


We were stuffing our faces soon after these pictures were taken with all the yummy "finger foods" we all were supposed to bring. But there were suspiciously more families there than there were foods. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.
Jeff had a ride along and left the derby early, so we hitched a ride home with our friends who have a 15 seater van, no joke.
Jeff's ride along went really well and he went "hand's on" for the first time. Meaning the first time he put hands on a civilian while on duty (not during a practice at the academy). He busted out with a Number 3 wristlock on the guy and was able to keep the guy from getting into a fight during a heated argument.
Graduation is coming up soon for Jeff and we are all very excited to have the Academy behind us. He's allowed to have 2 people come up and pin his badge on during the graduation ceremony, so Rome and Capri will do the honors. It should be very cute if they don't chicken out.

Stardust

Friday night Jeff and I actually managed to both rent a movie AND watch it. This rarely happens. Usually we either can't get up the gumption to rent a movie, can't find one we want to see, or we rent one and then are too tired to put it in the DVD player and watch it. But friday we beat the odds and suceeded in watching an entire movie (without pausing it 127 times for various kid related reasons). The real upside was that we also actually LIKED this movie, which also rarely happens.
Stardust is one of those movies that I vaguely remember hearing of but had absolutely no idea what it was about. I think my dad may have said that "every movie should be like Stardust". Sorry if I'm quoting you wrong Dad, but I have this wierd memory of you saying that.
If you haven't seen Stardust, you should. It is extremely well made and is a lot of fun to watch. Michelle Pfeiffer is GORGEOUS and as the evil witch of the movie you find yourself rooting for her because she is so darn pretty. Also, Robert DeNiro is very funny - and I rarely, if ever, like Robert DeNiro.
So go to your local Redbox, put it on the top of your Netflix list, or actually visit a Blockbuster and rent it. Support a movie that I don't think a lot of people saw, and that the "genius" Oscar people didn't recognize.
And no. I'm not going to tell you what it's about. You'll just have to see it, like I did, to find out.
I'm not sure I could explain it anyway.

Snow White Gets the Axe

Well Snow White is out. For some reason I wasn't thinking about how Capri had already been Snow White - the first costume mom made. I guess because we didn't dress up as any other characters in the movie it didn't process in my mind. Or, and this is highly possible, I could just be losing my mind altogether.

Halloween: Past and Yet to Come

Here in the Runyan household we take Halloween very seriously. We think all year about what we are going to be, get really excited about it, and then make my mom do all the work.
See my mom is an EXCELLENT seamstress. She is also very kind. And every year, save our first Halloween with Capri when were stupid enough to turn down her offer, she has sewn the kids Halloween costumes. This has resulted in some AMAZING costumes. Jeff and I are responsible for our own, meaning they aren't nearly as good.

The first year mom sewed for us she made Capri a Snow White costume. Halloween was on a sunday that year so Jeff didn't really want to dress up. But Capri still knocked everybody dead in her dress.

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The next year we had a circus theme and Rome and Capri stopped the show in their elephant and lion costumes.

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Next we chose The Wizard of Oz. You wouldn't have believed how much attention Capri and Rome got. Especially since Capri, being as comitted to Halloween as Jeff and I are, wore an incredibly cute wig I found with curls and pigtails.

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Last year we decided to do Alice in Wonderland. Again, mom's costumes stole the day. And Capri "wigged" it up once more.

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Literally the day after last Halloween we started talking about what to do this year. Yesterday we came up with two really viable options: Peter Pan and Snow White. Nothing has been decided yet. As mom put it while we were visiting in Cali, "If there is a pattern for it I can sew it. But there MUST be a pattern." Also, it must never, ever be something as tricky as that elephant costume was!