Single-Minded to the Point of Annoying

Lately I find myself saying the same things over and over, my voice tinged with excitement, my eyes slightly damp. I think I'm going to start driving people crazy, but so far I've only gotten positive reactions. I'm slightly excited about all the things coming up this year for my family. My oldest will graduate from high school. My second oldest will (finally) get his drivers license AND begin his senior year of high school. My third son will finish up his Eagle Scout rank and enter High School. All three boys will go on a Mormon Pioneer Trek adventure in early June. And my dear daughter will get a kitten (if she can just keep up the litter-box duty for a while longer), enter sixth grade, and will probably learn to style her hair.


But the biggest big deal of the year is that my oldest son will be leaving to serve a two-year mission for our church. He is very, very excited about this. Just last spring, our church President and Prophet announced that moving forward, young men will be able to begin serving missions at the age of 18, as opposed to the previous age requirement of 19, and my son started making plans.

First, he thought he might stay one more summer at home, because he simply loves his job. Plus, he's got these college applications and such to take care of. But after some careful consideration and heartfelt prayer, he decided the Lord wants him to "get outta here" sooner, and he wants to leave in June. This means he is able to submit his paperwork as early as this coming Sunday, though it will likely take a few extra weeks for everything to be finalized by our local church leaders. 

In turn, this means he will most likely get his call sometime in March. For any non-Mormons out there, that means he will receive a letter from our church leadership, telling him where he is being sent to serve for those 24 months. 

This is enormous news. A great, big deal. And I'm so very excited and happy and proud and thrilled and... nervous... and sad and joyous and... I'm a mixed bag.

Time for me to invest in some seriously waterproof eye makeup. 

It's going to be a year full of tears of joy and sadness, and hopefully a lot of laughter, too. 

I will try not to ONLY talk about this for the next two years. I will. I promise.

But please bear with me. It is kind of a BIG deal.   

As evidenced by this adorable video of a bunch of students from one high school, opening their mission calls. It's awesome.