it's my own fault

Showing off his missionary plaque, it has his picture, where he served and one of his favorite scriptures.

Enjoying family, friends and food after church. Especially enjoying the ice cream sundaes with lots of toppings.

just goofing around.

It was super fun having everyone who could make it for the homecoming and the BBQ afterwards!

The reason I titled my post "it's my own fault" it that I waited so long to post these pictures I knew someone would beat me to it (mom)! So that's my own fault, go check out mom's blog for some different pictures. I didn't want to post the same ones she did.

In bed before 9:30?

it can only mean either:

a. she's sick

or

b. seminary has started

First Day of her last year...

My last child to start her last year...how did my kids get so old so fast??

Katie might have a broken leg...

but she can still make an awesome welcome home sign! (with the help of a friend)

I finally took it down this afternoon after our little party. Everyone was tired of ducking under it when they had to go up or down the stairs.

This is what 500 bucks can buy at Costco...

That was just the first trip I made with mom on Tuesday (day before Brian came home). The second trip was only 290. I am going to try and stay away from Costco for a couple weeks.

My Internet Was DOWN!

Well, yes Brian is home! Mom beat me to the post because when I went to blog Wednesday night we discovered the internet was down and had to wait until the next day for the repair man to come. Isn't it always something?

So, back to the homecoming...

it was awesome, emotional (I have to say that I did not shed a tear, a little teary eyed but no official tears!) and everything I had been looking forward to.it was so exciting waiting to see the plane finally come into sight and watch it land!
Can you see him coming down the stairs? I am pretty sure he was the last one off the plane, he probably did that on purpose :)

almost to the front doors of the airport where we can finally hug him!

through the doors

picture came out a little dark but I wanted to post it anyway

enjoying just visiting after getting his luggage

Brian gets to meet Sean finally, he really liked the name tag!

loved this picture of Sean!

So since he has got home it has been a whirlwind of cooking, cleaning, doing dishes, washing towels, ha and then start over again! It has been great and Brian seems like himself but just a little more mature and humble.

Hopefully, more posts soon...

WE ARE CRAZY!!

This is the ultimate lesson in procrastination. For some reason little projects that could of been done anytime were put off until about a week ago. Now we are all (well mainly Bob and I) literally losing our minds!

These pictures will just give you a little taste of the chaos:I am posting this picture of Kyle not to show he is lazy playing video games but to show the mess that is our family room. Almost all the furniture in the entire upstairs is crammed in this room so we can re-carpet. The only room that still has carpet is Katie's, which will come out tomorrow I think. Notice that he did somehow manage to find a little spot for his bed and TV. our empty rooms...

The other main project going on right now is trying to complete the guest bathroom. Bob is working on it frantically, it will be interesting to see what it looks like by next Wednesday.

The toilet is sitting outside on the edge of our driveway, isn't that nice?

That way if any of the worker's need to use the bathroom it's very convenient.

The dump trailer full of the old carpet and pad. Kyle along with 2 fellows that we hired were the lucky ones to get to remove it.

I did have one more picture downloaded of the front of the house which is currently being prepped for stucco. Another mess.

I think all of us will just sleep next Thursday!

Lesson: don't bite off more than you can chew ;)

Dear Richardson Family...

Today I got the email I have been waiting for. It was the email with Brian's flight information. I know he is coming home next week but I just wanted to see in black and white, in writing, the details.
Here they are...
Leaves Belem August 24th at 940am, arrives in Sao Paulo at 350pm
Leaves Sao Paulo at 855pm and arrives in Atlanta, Georgia at 550am (Aug. 25th)
Leaves Atlanta at 935am and arrives in Seattle, Wa at 1203pm
Leaves Seattle at 430pm and arrives in Wenatchee at 510pm
5:15 (ish) surrounded by family with lots of smiles, hugs and maybe a few tears ;)

I have to say I am surprised at myself. It has been a very weird time. I can hardly wait for him to be home but every so often, at random times like walking or driving somewhere, always when I'm by myself I get a little emotional and even a little tearful. I don't know why, are they tears of joy, or tears of relief, or tears of sadness as I know that this experience is almost over for him. Am I crazy?
Well anyway, I am super excited, don't get me wrong but it is confusing thinking about the fact that when he left I had so many emotions (happy, sad, anxious, stressed etc) and now he is almost home and I just can't put into words the way I feel. I guess I feel he has been protected and watched over as he served Heavenly Father's children each and every day for 2 years and now he has to come home to the real world. You know, the real world that can kinda stink sometimes!
Along with his flight info I got this message from his mission president. Now I know it is probably some form letter that they write to every departing missionaries family but I am just going to believe that his MP is writing a little note that is specifically for us.
I will share that too and again I couldn't help myself, got a little teary when I read it as well...
it says:
Dear Richardson family,
Elder Richardson is about to complete a very successful mission in the Brazil Belem Mission. He will be leaving the mission on August 24th, 2010. He will be leaving a country and a people with whom he has developed a strong love.
Brian has been instrumental in bringing the gospel to many people while serving here. He has strong testimony of the gospel of JC and a deep conviction of the atonement of the Savior. He was blessed with an outstanding command of the Portuguese Language. He has served in many areas of the mission and has had an impact on the lives of fellow missionaries, members, and investigators. He has served as Senior companion, Trainer, and Zone Leader. He has demonstrated strong leadership qualities throughout the mission and has been an excellent example of the Christ-like attributes necessary to be a leader. We will certainly miss Elder Richardson. he has learned many things here that will help him throughout his life. Thank you for helping to prepare such a wonderful young man to serve this very successful mission.
Sincerely,
Mission president-

One bright spot for Katie last week was she went to the BSB concert with Bronte and a couple other friends from church. They had a blast and now Katie wants every CD!
the girls got together before the concert to make t-shirts

a fun time!

Katie said "THEY CAN DANCE!" and would love to go again, maybe I can go with her next time.

It's August...

Beware:

Pictures ahead may not be suitable for viewers with weak stomachs :)

This is Katie crazy on Morphine!

On the day of discharge we had to stop at WalMart to get pills. Katie got to ride the scooter.


We have a handi-cap person in the house now.


Outer ankle incision.

Inner leg staples.

Getting all fixed up.

Phase one of getting cast on.

almost done

I'm not sure Katie is all that impressed but at least it's hot pink!

You can definitely say that I am behind. In everything. As far as the computer goes I have had nothing but trouble for the past month. I will not go into detail but the computer that I was using (Brian's) crashed twice. It is still not working and that is ANOTHER project Bob has before Brian gets home (16 days btw). Then he had to finally reprogram an older computer he had and of course I lost all my passwords etc so it has just been a nightmare for a someone like me who gets frustrated in about 2 seconds.

It's July Already??

I guess it is July and that means I have to catch up on a couple of June activities.

We went to Ashleigh's graduatio party BBQ a couple Saturday's ago. It was fun to see everyone and they had the most food I have ever seen at a graduation party! I told Elena she is comin' to Pateros next year to help with Katie's... :)Earlier this week I dropped off Paul, Bronte and Katie at EFY in Tacoma. It is being help at the University of Puget Sound. Here they are just checked in and ready to go see where they will be sleeping for the week.

Katie and Bronte in their room.

P.S. My computer crashed last week and I haven't been able to blog, check emails etc for a while. Bob spent hours and hours getting it up and running again. It actually is Brian's computer that was his graduation present so it would be very poor timing for it to crash right before he gets home and will need it again... only 2,000 for a new one.

The kids will be heading home tomorrow, this week has zoomed by and I don't know where the time went, sigh.

P.P.S. - 8 weeks! and now I can say Brian is coming home NEXT month!

To All You Dad's

A BIG "HAPPY FATHER'S DAY"I know I have the best dad ever! He is so many things and really just a thank you, a phone call, a small gift, an I love you isn't enough to even begin to show my love and appreciation. But sometimes there aren't always words to express how truly blessed we are. I hope all the dad's, step-dad's, uncle's, and anyone who has been a father figure to anyone, at anytime, I hope you know, someway, somehow, how very important you are in all of our lives!
Everyone needs a dad!

No more visitors

We are gonna be a little lonely around our house this week! All our visitors have come and gone. Mom and dad left Wednesday (we did get to go to breakfast with them and David, Tiffany and Sean before they headed to airport) and David and family went home Thursday. Ahh, now just back to the grind.Katie got to do lots of babysitting while they were here!
David and Tiffany made us a yummy spaghetti dinner Wednesday night! I still got to do the dishes. :)

goofing around

and we even got to give Sean his nightly bath, in our kitchen sink.

The only good thing about everyone going home is maybe I won't eat so much!!

I love it

I have been looking for something to hold my necklaces. All of them. I had even asked Bob a few days ago if he could make me something "simple". His idea of simple and mine are not the same so when I found this I was super excited. The really cool thing is it has pockets on the front and back! It has 66 pockets in all.Isn't it cool, only 20 bucks!

Thanks for the inspiration...

All of you (in blog land) provide inspiration at one time or another, but tonight my inspiration was :

Julia!

I have been telling myself every night, "I need to blog", then obviously I don't and I think I will tomorrow for sure. Obviously I didn't. Until now.

Once again, it is late, the pictures are all out of order but I will feel better because I am getting caught up and then feel like I can "try to be better!" :)

So this first picture is what I did on Saturday. I taught a lesson on Sunday on prayer and I was trying to come up with a creative idea for a handout (we take turns doing them and my turn is the 2nd Sunday of the month). I know the girls have probably seen or done the prayer rock a 1000 times but then I saw this cute idea for a pillowcase. So...

off to Walmart I went. About 50 bucks and ten hours later I was done! It is kinda hard to tell but they turned out pretty cute. Believe me, I do not do this every month. Once and a while it is fun to go the extra mile...We have had lots of graduation celebrations around here. Graduation weekend was the first weekend in June. Katie went to Brewster graduation on Friday night (her boyfriend Brian graduated, he is pictured here in the red - obviously he is not the girl in the purple haha)
of course we went to Bronte's graduation Saturday afternoon in Manson. You already know all about that from Shannon's post! It was fun.

Like I said, the pictures are out of order, so Memorial Day weekend Kyle came home for a quick weekend visit. He flew into Wenatchee on Thursday night at 11:30 pm and we put him back on a plane Sunday morning at 11:00. Bob had forgot about the holiday weekend when he made the reservations a month or so before. It was fun to see him again, it has been almost 5 months. We ate, saw a movie, shopped. What else is there to do??Katie and I went to Bronte's senior presentation. It was at the Campbell's Hotel which was very nice. Pateros does it in the library at the school so having it at Campbell's made it feel more "fancy". (sorry not quite the right word, but hey it's late...)

Just a few other items of interest:

1. Have had a great time with Mom and Dad here. They will leave tomorrow but before they do we get to have breakfast with David, Tiffany and Sean. yay!

2. Got to shop with mom (kinda funny because she told dad after shopping with me that she had been "bad" again and I was thinking I had been pretty "good" because I only bought one top, a super cheap skirt - like under 10 dollars cheap at Macy's, and some jean shorts that I really, really, NEEDED!)

3. Had a nice early father's day BBQ with dad, mom, Paul and Joe and of course us this last Sunday. Ate way too much. (can I ever stop eating...)

4. Katie was MVP for her softball team and also was voted by the other coaches in the league to "first team all league".

5. She will get straight A's again this semester.

6. School is out, let the craziness begin...

P.S. Can I mention ten weeks and counting... and I am now.