MCO at BYU Education Week

What a freakin’ awesome week! I signed up the kids to sing with MCO at BYU Education Week. On paper traveling and singing in Utah was an easy thing. The reality was much more tiring and challenging. I spent hours on substitute plans, knowing that the likelihood of getting a sub was only 10%. It was even more challenging when I haven’t sorted the computer pass cards into correct classrooms nor made cards for the new students. Our kids were challenged to have their bags packed and ready to go Monday night. It’s a miracle that we actually reached that goal before bedtime. We talked with Amelia off and on after lunchtime. Her trainer is going home this week! Amelia also said that she is staying in Slidell another transfer period. President Chard is making quite a few changes like moving communication from FB messenger to Google Meet, moving companionships to only one companionship per apartment, and limiting what missionaries can do on P-day. It’s all good and will be amazing once the changes take place and everyone is settled. We miss our cutie girl. 

Tuesday was an absolutely crazy day! We worked/went to school until 11 am, I had an open period from 11-11:50 so was able to leave early. We crammed the bags into Rozz and stuffed the car top carrier with pillows and blankets. The most important snacks and bags of chips were the last items besides the humans going to Utah. Thankfully the drive was mellow. We listened to the last 4 chapters of Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix. Listening to Jim Dale read Harry Potter is the best way to travel. We hit all the local traffic in SLC and Provo, so lucky. The MCO rehearsal was supposed to start at 5:30, we rolled off the freeway around 5:45. The kids were hungry, we were late, so it was gas station food for the hungry mob. I grabbed 4 packages of cheese and jerky fully aware of the consequences and the price tag (sheesh). The van smelled like BO and jerky for a few hours as it baked in the sun. The kids got dressed as we were traveling down University Ave, rolled in front of the Conference center and kicked the kids to the curb clutching their cheese and jerky looking like level 5 citizens dressed to the nines in their concert attire. My parking fairy powers granted me a parking spot on the front row! Yee haw. I joined the ladies at the attire table and offered my time, talents, and any remaining energy. I was so excited to meet THE  Krista Baker, attire head honcho extraordinaire. I learned some things from the Utah and Arizona Attire Coordinators, those ladies are intense. We ran around like crazy pinning pocket squares, passing out the inevitable missing bowties forgotten at home, switching dresses, even passing out 5 entire sets of attire to singers who forgot their items. After a break everyone headed over to the Marriott Center for a technical rehearsal. I sat and watched the magic with Krista until 11 pm. It was fun to hear how the sound changed as microphones were added and balanced. The sound was just as amazing in the auditorium as it was in BATHROOM! Yes the bathroom! Rehearsal was extended until after 11 pm because things were going slower than anticipated. There were quite a few upset parents waiting and waiting until their children finally came running down the sidewalks. It was chaos as parents tried grabbing kids out of the line instead of checking them out. We quickly put the kibosh on that and had parents check out the correct way so that no child went missing. We were exhausted and tired by the time Rozz pulled into James and Miekka’s driveway. We put on our sneaky ninja vibes figuring out the front door and sleeping arrangements. I completely misunderstood Miekka’s instructions to sleep in Lia’s room. I thought we were sharing the room but didn’t want to disturb her so slept on the couch in the basement. Joke’s on ME. I started the laundry before sleeping, had to wash everything after the sweat bath we all enjoyed at rehearsal. 

Wednesday we did not need to be at the conference center until 3:30, that gave us time to sleep in and have a lazy morning. I went to DI with Miekka and Lia. The kids stayed behind working on showering and homework. I scored two pairs of cute overalls! Miekka had tons of garden tomatoes for delicious BLTs at lunchtime. So good. We wanted to explore BYU but by the time we actually got there it was time to get dressed and check-in. I was slated to help with CCM but changed my assignment to attire at the request of Krista Baker. Most of the attire was sorted out the prior evening so mostly we just sat around watching the kid’s belongings. The night before the building director was walking around grumbling about all the backpacks littering the floor. The more he walked the more he grumbled UNTIL he listened to the choirs warming up. His eyes got larger as he wandered around. He whipped around to ask me if all those kids were actually singing?! Yep! They are. After hearing the MCO youth singing his attitude changed. I spent most of the actual concert time running back and forth between the Marriott Center and the Conference Center grabbing fresh clothes for the young singers and a child from ChC who had accidents. I really wanted a golf cart or scooter by the second trip. It was fun to watch the concert from the floor level. The soldiers and YSC were in the same area while waiting for their stage cues. One young man looked wide-eyed at a soldier before asking him if he was a real soldier. He solemnly shook that man’s hand. Phillip and Everett were flag holders on the left side of the stage for the concerts. Grandma Debbie said Grandpa complained the entire trip down to Provo and then exhausted the entire way home! I texted Grandma and Grandpa where my kids were located, it was hard to find Phillip and Everett but they did spot both girls. I rushed upstairs after the concert to snatch a moment with my parents. “I’m So Blessed” raised the roof! We were all on cloud nine after the first concert. Phillip said he got all the feels when the Youngers sang “I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag,” made him want to smack some sense into his disrespectful cohorts at school. One cute YSC was practically shout-singing the song into a mic, it was really cute. That Wednesday concert was the best ever, everything gave me the feels. We hobbled to our van, hotter than ovens ready to rest for another evening of “fun.” I spotted a Bahama Bucks (Butts) in Provo, we stopped there for an after concert treat. I think that was the BEST snow cone of my entire life, raspberry with cream and sour sand. Josie did not like her Oreo drink, we swapped hers for a gummy bear flavor. 

Thursday we were tired but excited for another concert. I had to hem Evelyn’s dress as it was about 8 inches too long. The kids worked on some homework, I cleaned all the concert clothes again, and we rested until it was go time. We left around 2 pm so we would have time to peruse the BYU bookstore and have dinner. Curtain call was not until 6 pm so we had plenty of time. The campus was filled to the brim with BYU education week attendees. Several of my favorite religious artists were there selling artwork and signing their art. I spotted my favorite painting of Christ walking on the water but reimagined with cool tones. So lovely, yep…it came home with me. We had Chik-fil-a for dinner at the food court…with BYU fudge for dessert. We left enough time to snag some nice photos of the Von Call Family Singers before check-in. I was so excited Jana, Hannah, and Rachel were coming to see us sing for the first time. We really appreciated everyone coming out, it was NOT convenient in the slightest with evening traffic on a week school night. Miekka, Seth, and Lia met up with me at the Marriott Center. Jared and Whynky joined us and sat in the two extra seats in our row. The concert did not start at 7, just like the night before it started at 7:21. Maybe they were keeping an eye on the open seats and only started once a certain percentage was filled? Jared and Whynky were late due to traffic but just in time because the concert started late. Hooray! Evelyn said she had to laugh at Rachel because each time she spotted her Rachel was in a different position. Silly goose. I felt all the feels a few times during the concert. It was really cool to see everything come together. During I’m So Blessed folks were waving their cellphone lights, looked so pretty with the sea of lights dancing along. 

Lia works at Thanksgiving Point, she was able to get my kids in for free! We decided to check out Imaginaria, a USA themed celebration at the Ashton Gardens. I bought two punch cards so we could do some crafts and get some treats. It was a sultry day, humid and hot. We melted slowly while enjoying all the sights and activities. I think the best part was the misting fans. Ha ha! Kidding. The kids all spent some punch card points on crafts like painting cars, rock rings, and leather bracelets. The new Lehi’s Vision statue garden was quite magnificent. Seth and Lia had to continue on with Jacob’s legacy of putting sunglasses on the statues. My kids joined in the fun! We had some fries and ice cream for lunch. The ice cream was very delicious and cold. Lia showed us where the embroidery and some other crafts were located. The boys and Josie made rockets. I think the boys made a rocket, it looked very interesting. We rode on Casey Sr, while singing Casey Jr. Yepper do, having fun is very fun. Evelyn and I argued for an hour about her homework once we were back at Miekka’s. She did not get any work completed, refused to. Everyone else got most of their assignments finished. Jared and Whynky came over for dinner. Jared started a new game where each niece of nephew has to think of a character with one power (earth, wind, fire, water, etc), and ability, and a weapon. After dinner they all went in the basement for an hour settling their characters with Jared. We were on the phone with Jared at one point earlier in the day and Jared requested that the wierdness be capped at a 5. Phillip astutely asked if that was 5 out of 10 or 5 out of a 100! It does make a difference. Josie spent all day today working on drawing her character, fixing little things, adding details, and all that. I LOVE that Jared plays games like this with the kids, he is a cool brother. I wanted to join but talking with Miekka and Whynky was much more appealing. We finished off the evening watching a funny movie called “The Hunt for the Wilderpeople.” Seth and Lia were quoting the movie several times, piqued our interest. The movie was hilarious, right down our alley. 

Saturday we were moving slower than sloths. Having fun costs money and energy. We stopped to visit Grandma and Grandpa for a bit. We invaded Jana and Rudy’s home, woke up Rudy with our energetic stomping. I asked Rudy if he had a matter daddy because the van was acting strange. I tried the joke on Phillip but he never said, “what’s a matter daddy?” Rudy did not play nice either, ruined the joke. Jana chipped in to say Rudy does not actually know much about cars nor has many tools like a matter daddy. We hugged until the endolphins started swimming then left. Lastly, we stopped at Charity and Kenny’s home. I wanted to hear all about Tate and Ellie’s wedding the previous week. Our hearts full we started on the way home with a hangry Evelyn. She demanded Costa Vida, I wanted cheap Del Taco, Everett chimed in requesting McDonalds or Subway, Phillip didn’t care. I was grumpy about Evelyn’s attitude so I drove around until spotting a Mo’Bettah’s. Sure! We went there with only Evelyn complaining. The rest of the day was driving home. I had Phillip drive for an hour because my eyes were wiggling with fatigue. It rained for him, his first drive in the rain. A huge 18-wheeler truck had a back tire explode with us directly behind the truck. That woke me up, Phillip maneuvered through the debris like a champ. Our hearts were galloping for a while after that excitement. Justin did some grocery shopping and meal planning for the week. Bless his heart! That made the evening much better. We unpacked and settled in for the rest of the evening. I was finally able to finish the last 3 bags left on the Monet Lego. It looks amazing. I hung that sucker up as soon as I snapped on the last Lego. 

It was also my turn to teach RS today. I listened to Brother Wonderli’s talk on Christ is not the Burden; He is the Way on repeat about 50 times over the past month. I have so many thoughts about his talk. I thought his opening story was interesting. The gist of the story was that his son’s picture of Jesus did not make the backpack heavy, it was the rocks. Wonderli’s humorous suggestion to remove the picture of Jesus was so obviously NOT the answer even to his young son. I remembered Sister Johnson’s talk entitled “Jesus Christ is Relief,” went perfectly with this talk. Our burdens can be sorted into three major types of rocks: personal choices, actions of others, and simply living in a fallen world. There are some burdens we cannot remove from our packs, like a disability, natural disasters, etc. These heavy burdens can be lifted by our Savior as we are strengthened by Him. Removing Jesus does not change our burdens. I am also reminded in a different talk by Sister Johnson she said, “we can do hard alone or hard with Jesus!”