Mission Memories & Magnum Bars

Today after work/school, Autumn & I went over to Mom & Dad’s.   Dad had to go in to work, but he had put a lasagna in the oven, so we ate that for dinner and I let Autumn watch an episode of the Backyardigans until we had to leave for my Single Adult meeting.  I told her that she had to be really good during the meeting, and she was a perfect little angel!  She just sat next to me and colored in a coloring book I had brought to keep her occupied.  Dad was able to come and get her at 7:30 when he got done with work.  The meeting was really good and we got a lot accomplished and felt the Spirit.

On the way home, I stopped at WalMart to pick up my the pictures that I was missing from my mission, which I had printed off.  There were 184 that I was missing!!!  I was walking past an end cap and let out a little yelp of excitement b/c I saw these Magnum bars.  Sis. Jones & I LOVED these, and would eat them every so often.  We especially liked eating them when we went back to visit Slovenija in 2004.  The Magnum bars were expensive ($3.48 for just 3 bars), but I know the memories that will come flooding back when I eat it, will be worth it (even though the calories won’t be worth it).  I just wish I lived closer to Jonesy & Brenner so we could eat them together during a Girl’s Night Out.

I went and got Autumn from Dad and we came home and I put her to bed.  I have some super exciting news to share about my Project Life I’m doing of my mission, but I’m going to be a teaser and just leave it at that for now.  Since I talk about PL so much and how I stay up so late each night to work on it, I figured I’d better post some pics so y’all could see my hard work.  Here’s the first week of my mission PL where I got to meet Pres. & Sis. Aardema before he became the mission president.  I also got to do a live session in the Salt Lake City temple w/ Mom and Dad, which was really neat.  As you can see, PL couldn’t be easier.  I just use the awesome cards in the kit from Becky Higgins and then I slipped my pictures into the slots of the plastic sheets, wrote some notes on the journaling cards and…TA-DA!

I also love that I can add in things between the pictures.  This is a sign that was on our door when we got to the MTC along with the schedule for the 2 months I was there.  I just put those in a regular 8x10 plastic sheet protector and stuck that in the binder.  Couldn’t be easier!

On the left page, I wrote about each of our 3 language teachers we had.  Then I started a new “subject” on the right hand side of the page, which was all about how many Polynesian Elders there were at the MTC.  And y’all know I LOVE me some Polynesian guys!

This was the day that we got to Slovenija and how Elder Holland came to visit that same day!  I know you can’t see it very well, but on the far left, middle row, I cut out a 2x3 card from the inside of an envelope that had the name of the church in all sorts of languages.  That’s what I  love about PL…it’s just so incredibly versatile and can be adapted to work however you need it to.

On this page, you can see where I was missing some pictures.  I just cut a 4x6 index card in half and wrote what pictures should go there and the date.  That way I could do my journaling for that picture, and just keep on moving instead of letting a missing picture hold me up.  For things that were too big for the journaling spots or too small for the 4x6 pictures, I just adhered them to a 4x6 index card and put them in.  For example…my bus pass in the upper right hand corner.  I also included some mementos like my library card where we would go to email our parents on Preparation Days.

This is what my dining room table looks like right now.  It’s a mess, but a controlled and organized mess.  I also have my mission journal/binder on a chair to my right and the binder of all my emails that Mom printed off from my mission on a chair to my left.  So far I have only made a small dent in all of the pictures I have yet to “Project Life”, but I am thrilled w/ the progress I’ve made in such a short amount of time.  Already I love flipping through the pages and reliving the great moments and memories of the MTC and my first few months in Slovenija.  It’s now 1:40 am, so I guess I’d better call it a night (or is that morning)?!