An investment in integrity

Last Saturday we asked Melissa to run to a nearby convenience store to buy a few things we needed (she loves running errands, because that means she’s driving, so she happily agreed).

Yvonne didn’t have any cash, so she gave Melissa some money from Jason’s wallet (insert your own joke here).

At the store, Melissa made the purchase, but only received change for a payment of $10, not for the $20 bill she had given the cashier. Melissa handled it well, explaining to the cashier and store manager what happened, and they gave her the correct change from $20.

When she got home and related the story and how proud she was that she got the correct change, Yvonne and Jason looked at each other awkwardly.

Yvonne was sure it had been a $10 bill, not a $20. Jason checked his wallet. Yep, only a $10 bill was missing. She had received $10 too much in change.

Melissa, obviously, was mortified, but knew that no matter how embarrassed she was, the money had to be returned.

So back she went. When she walked in the door and approached the store manager, he smiled and said, “It was a 10, wasn’t it?”

Melissa apologized and returned the money. The manager was cool, and Melissa felt better that she made it right. It was a good reminder for all of us of how important honesty is, and that no embarrassment is worth sacrificing your integrity.

Fast forward to the next Monday. Our home sale in Las Vegas had been done since July 17, more than two months previous.

In the mail, we received a letter from our Las Vegas mortgage company dated August 3 that apparently had made quite a journey to find us. Unbeknownst to us, we were due a refund from the closing of our Las Vegas house. Enclosed in the envelope was a check for $2,300 and change. As Jason held the check and we all stood in disbelief, Yvonne looked at Melissa and said, “Well, there’s your $10.”

Isn’t God’s interest rate -- whether it's cash or other blessings -- on the principle of integrity great?

Calamine, calamine, calamine lotion

Colin and Carson both went camping with the Scouts this past weekend. The event was a five-mile canoe trip down the Potomac River, with an overnight stop during the trip.



The boys got home Saturday before the rain got going in earnest, and both said they had a great time. They noted that Carson slept in the tent, but Colin slept outside with some of the other Scouts (apparently real men sleep under the stars).

Later that afternoon, Colin started to itch.

Really itch.

And then bumps began to appear on his hands, face, and lower back.

Lots of bumps.

Evidently, when he decided to sleep outside, an all-points bulletin went out to all mosquitoes in the tri-state area that a free all-you-can-eat buffet was about to open.

Thankfully, Colin was wearing a t-shirt to bed, so the mosquitoes only got to his hands, arms, face and neck (as if that's not enough). And yes, his lower back, when sometime during the night he got too warm and opened his bag, exposing about a four-inch band above his waistband.

He wouldn’t let us take his picture for the blog, but if you know what Braille looks like, let’s just say that Colin could have been a lengthy novel.

Once the Benadryl and calamine lotion kicked in, he was ok (actually, he was too loopy to care, which was very funny). We were hoping that the Sunday school lesson would be about lepers so Colin could be the object lesson, but no such luck. He's itchin' and scratchin' today.

Carson, meanwhile, was unmarked, because he dwelt in a tent.

Just following directions

Today, while getting ready for stake conference, Levi asked if he could take some toy cars. Considering the two-hour meeting ahead, we agreed that he could take one in each pocket.

So we were sitting in church, and Levi showed us car #1. Then car #2.

And then cars 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

We quickly realized we couldn't get mad at him for bringing so many cars.

He was wearing cargo pants -- 8 pockets.

Levi's head vs. Levi's heart

We're doing a lot of work trying to turn our new house into a home. 

Saturday was a long, busy day. After a productive morning, the afternoon found us all spread out. 

Jason was upstairs with Colin and Dylan, painting bedrooms. Yvonne and Melissa were in the garage unloading boxes. Carson was mowing the lawn.

And Levi? Evidently playing with his toys. Somewhere. Unnoticed.  

But after a while he showed up in the garage and asked Yvonne to tie his shoes. Yvonne asked where he was going.  

"I heard in my head that I should help my mom and dad and brothers," he explained.

After a pause, Levi gave us full disclosure, as he tends to do: "My heart told me not to...but I listened to my head."

Yvonne laughed and gave Levi some work  and he helped for several minutes, at which point his heart won out and he returned to the house.    

Beyond cans-on-a-string and grilled cheese sandwiches

Earlier this week we commented to our good friend Gina Piet that it's been tough moving so far away from our friends in the West. Thank goodness, we agreed, for e-mails, blogs, text messages, Facebook, and cell phones so we can keep up with each others' lives.

Gina noted that without technology we could be writing letters instead, which kicked off a text message brainstorming exchange on other ways we could communicate without today's electronic marvels:

• Sending telegraphs
• Cans on a string
• Smoke signals
• Carrier pigeons
• Cave drawings
• Interpretive dance
• Paul Revere
• Mental telepathy
• Native drumbeats
• Message in a bottle
• A 2500-mile long chain of people playing the telephone game
• Sky writing
• Town criers
• A new star in the heavens
• Messages encoded on vinyl albums that can only be heard when the album is played backwards
• Images that appear in water marks
• Images that appear on grilled cheese sandwiches in diners across the South
• Messages embedded in various national landmarks, currency, and documents that are readable only if you can decipher “the code”
  

The question is...did we miss one?

The new house

As you can probably imagine, we've been crazy busy over the last week as we move into the new house.

Our stuff was unloaded into the house Tuesday and Wednesday, meaning the house was stuffed with boxes, which were stuffed with our stuff and packing paper. Somewhere a forest is thinner thanks to all the cardboard used to pack our belongings.

So we've been unpacking boxes, setting up bedrooms, stocking cupboards, and painting rooms.


Our first night in the house we actually had a sit down meal at home for the first time since early July (of course, we were sitting on the back patio with our patio table, four dining room chairs, two patio chairs, and one office chair -- because that's what we had). Many thanks to a few of our new neighbors from the ward who brought dinner over. What a treat (and what a great meal).




We did take a few photos to show some of the outside and inside of the house, our family, and the gorgeous sunset that welcomed us home (as shot from our upstairs bedroom). Fortunately we got photos that day, because it's rained every day since (thank goodness we set up the TV and DVD player, and our long-neglected Ping Pong table).

We are no longer homeless

For the record, we moved out of our Las Vegas house on July 14, when all of our belongings were packed, loaded on a truck, and shipped east for storage.

For 56 days, we were homeless. During that time we stayed in 11 different hotels in nine different cities, put nearly 4,000 miles on our Suburban, basically lived out of seven suitcases (one for each of us), and actually grew tired of eating out.

Finally, on September 8, we closed on our new house in Frederick (side note: we were originally scheduled to close August 14 but entered real estate hell for the next 26 days as realtors, lenders, brokers, and title companies tried to iron out the details).

We'll post photos soon.

But let's just say that when the e-mail came over our phones at 12:14 p.m. on Tuesday saying that the bank had received the wire transfer of funds (making the sale final), we were already standing on the porch with key-in-hand and the movers parked in the driveway. By 12:15 p.m. every door was open and we were unloading our stuff into the house. We've been working almost non-stop to empty boxes and set up the new place ever since.

Many thanks to all of you who offered your thoughts and prayers for everything to work out. Despite the many challenges and frustrations, we recognize that not only could it have taken longer or been more difficult, the sale very well could have fallen apart. We are glad it didn't, and knowing that so many people were pulling for it to happen helped sustain us through a very frustrating time.

We will, by the way, be ready for guests by this weekend. You know where to find us.