2 times the Packages

I randomly decided to send two packages to Elder Raines last week. One was because a long time ago I bought a ton of food for him and now it’s almost about to expire. And the second one to help him celebrate summer as best as I can.

This is his “Summer/Sunshine” Package

Very bright, happy and summery colors :)

I put in lots of toys and fun things to play with during the summer to make him feel like a kid again.

1. Silly string-one for him and one for his companion (Or both for him so he can attack his companion with them. Haha)
2. Sidewalk chalk! We always played with this during the summer. If you haven’t noticed, he’s amazing at art so I’m excited to see what he does with it.
3. A football to toss around
4. Finger football for when they just wanna stay indoors.
5. Squirts guns
6. Bubbles
7. Frisbee
8. Velcro catch ball-I remember this is one of his favorite things to play with :) I hope he likes it.
9. Play dough
10. Glow in the dark Stars-told him to think of me every time he looks at them. It makes me smile to know that we look at the same moon and stars :)

Always fun to put confetti in the box so he has a mess to clean up. Lol.

I call this one his… “I bought this food a while ago and totally forgot about it and some is about to expire but I know you won’t care because you’re a missionary” Package! Haha.

 

Lots of yummy food that is super easy and simple to make for a busy missionary!

I hope that the packages get there fast!

13 Months Down / 11 To Go!

Today marks Mike’s 13th month being gone! YAY! It flew by! I swear I was just barely celebrating half way to home! And now, now we’re one month closer to home! How nuts!

I love this boy more than words can describe! There is no one like him.

I copied Miss Taylor Swift on this one. Her number is 13 and she writes it on her hand during concerts.

Bought this for Mike! Batman is our man. He’s a sweet metal thingy I got a Hobby Lobby. It’s hard to pass up awesome deals like this.

A hilarious comic that I got off ‘the wall’. I literally Lol’d

I can’t believe I didn’t start this earlier! A couple weeks ago Mike said that I needed to print off a certain email and put it in my scrapbook. I was like…holy crap! I don’t have one of those! haha. I spent the next 4 days printing them and putting them into these binders. I’m so happy that I got caught up on these. It’ll be so fun to look back on these one day <3

Mike is so happy. He is staying in Warsaw as Zone Leader! His companion is Elder Tingey! One of his all time favorite companions. About 3 transfers ago they were companions in Bydgoszcz. I guess the Raines/Tingey duo wasn’t quite finished! :)

He’s wearing my tie that I bought him :)

 

 

I’m pretty sure this is his Polish suit that he bought a while ago. And dang. It looks so good on him :)

Raines and Tingey!

Missionary life is hard

That’s my handsome boy!

11 months to go!

“Two years ain’t got nothing on us”

Mothers Day

I have the best mother ever! I love her so much! She is always always there for me no matter what. She is the person I go to with anything! She celebrates with me when I get exciting news and comforts me when I’m sad. She supports me with all of my decisions and I can’t thank her enough for raising me into the woman I am today (I mean, I know I’m pretty great ;) haha jk). She is the greatest example of selflessness. I only wish that I can grow up to be half the women that she is.

Happy Mothers Day Mama!

I LOVE YOU!

Mothers Day Phone Call!

Mothers Day as a missionary girlfriend is quite different than any other Mothers Day I’ve ever experienced (Last year Mike couldn’t call because he was in the MTC). I woke up Sunday morning absolutely ecstatic. My heart was beating out of my chest and I had so many butterflies that I felt like my tummy was going to explode. My siblings came over in the morning for breakfast and I honestly only ate 2 bites of it because I was so nervous. I had so many emotions going through my mind that I didn’t even know how to handle myself. My brother-in-law just kept telling me, “Don’t be nervous!” Well that’s a horrible thing to say to a nervous person! Haha. Those couple hours went by so slow but finally the time came when I could head over to Mike’s house!

All of his siblings were there :) We were all so excited to talk to him! We were told that we were supposed to call Mike at 12:30 and the phone call would be 40 minutes long. Sadly his mission isn’t allowed to Skype :( Mike’s mom, Susan, dialed his number around 12:20. We had a couple issues with the phone call again (we had issues with the Christmas phone call) but got it figured out fast. Susan took the phone into another room and talked to Elder Raines for a few minutes. She then passed the phone to Warren. And then when he was done he passed it off to ME! They let me talk to Mike by myself for about 10 minutes! I was on cloud 9! It was so so great to hear his voice and be able to talk to him all on my own. I really miss that. I miss calling him on the way home from work just to tell him about my day. I could have talked to him for hours. Once I was finished with my phone call, we only had 10 more minutes to talk to him as a family. As we talked to him, I remembered why I fell in love with him in the first place…his humor. That’s what made him stand out to me in 8th grade. He has the best laugh ever. I love it! I get so happy when I hear it :) I was watching the clock like a hawk, I watched those ten minutes pass…the time keep ticking…and we were still on the phone with him. What is this madness? (Not that I’m complaining!). That phone call lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes! Best minutes ever! We laughed, I surprisingly didn’t cry! I honestly was just happy. Happy to hear his voice, happy know that he was doing okay, and happy that he was happy :D It was definitely a different experience than the Christmas phone call. I love that boy. More than anything.

This is what I gave Mike’s mom for Mother’s Day :) I need to print one off for myself

Love my Cardboard Mike

Mike recently sent home a package. It had a tie in it that he got for free from Adams Ties in Poland. All of us put it on and took a picture of it. Haha.

It was a great Mother’s Day! That phone call totally rejuvenated me and gave me a boost to keep going until his next phone call! So grateful to his family for including me in, well everything. I love him family. They are amazing and I love every single one of them.

Only 227 days until Christmas!! Psh, but whose counting right?

Herriman Endurocross

Endurocross is a motorcycle competition where they race through obstacles. There were lots of obstacles for these guys! There was a sand trap, spools, logs, rocks, mud, and tires! It was so much fun! In the amateur race there were mostly older racers and one 13 year old. The 13 year old WON with a lap to spare! It was awesome :)

 

 

 

The logs

 

Sand trap

 

Stuck in the muddy tires!

 

Brad and Kami

Grandpa, Grandma and Carson

Carson doing what he does best…stuffing his face. Lol.

My buddy Seaners

HAHAH! This picture cracks me up! “Carson say ‘cheese’”. He might have put a little too much cheese into his smile ;)

Kami and me :)

Donavin intensely watching

 

 

The winner revving it up

Grandma and Carsey

 

Time for the audience foot race!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The winner!

Go Braves!

Yeah we totally don’t look like sisters… ;) Lucky to have her!

 

Now the Rhinos turn! The most entertaining ones (in my opinion)

 

 

 

 

 

 

He got stuck like that. Haha

Traffic jam

 

The winner jumps!…

Flips his car and sticks the landing! What a way to finish!

I love my nephews <3

Me and my parents

Great night with the fam! So lucky to have them :)