August 13-16

Hey everyone! Jon, Eli, and I are coming up to salt lake the weekend of aug 13-16 for my sisters wedding on the 14th. We can stay till tuesday, so we should do something as a family (as previously stated by Emily) Sunday night through tuesday morning? Kate said she would look into reserving the Davidson cabin which would be fun (and not as much work as camping) what does everyone think?

Today Eli and I (Jenn) had dinner with Nonni, Grandpa, Grandma McDonald, and Melissa. (Jon was sleeping) Anyways Eli likes to talk now : )

How a mission call is made

I'm so excited about Amy's mission, and a little wistful too. It seems like her 21 years as our "baby" went by way too fast. Now she's really heading out in a new way, pretty much beyond our reach. Distance on the globe is one thing: not being able to talk to her more than every 6 months is another degree of separation entirely.

Nevertheless, she will be in the best possible hands, better than mine. So I cannot begrudge the transfer of responsibility.

I was talking to Melissa about having a family pool or guessing where Amy will be sent, a little concerned not to trivialize the sacred process of the call. Melissa reminded me of the General conference talk on the subject, and I read it for the first time a few minutes ago. I thought everyone might enjoy reading it, because the process is actually a little different than I imagined. Some of you have probably already read the talk, but here's the link.

http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1207-18,00.html

or if that doesn't work, go to lds.org the General Conference April 2010 "The Divine Call of a Missionary"

Jim, I think you'll enjoy this better than my garbles explanation when we've talked before about how its decided where a missionary is assigned. This explains it straightforwardly and succinctly. I was really glad to learn how it's done, with the medical and other taken into account, along with the spiritual factor.

mission papers submitted.

I was incredibly nervous for my interview with the Stake President last night. this was the last step. the last thing I can do before a white envelope with a destination inside arrives in my mailbox. I had been worried about the interview all weekend. President Harrison called me on Thursday just the moment I was boarding the plane to Salt Lake City. it seems like all the times I am losing sight of my mission, the Lord is quick to remind me (namely, I was thinking a lot about Ariel and Steve's wedding, along with my own dating woes and victories, when there in my gate was a sister returning home from her mission in D.C. and then just a few minutes later, the Stake President himself called me). President Harrison is a very interesting man and reveals somewhat of the culture of the church here in D.C. he married Bill Marriott's daughter--and essentially all the leadership in my stake is in the hands of rich, powerful employees of Marriott International--yeah like the hotels. when he called me, he was very adamant that everything on my medical papers be filled out. well, this made me nervous. and the whole weekend I was nervous. like sick to my stomach nervous.

when I arrived at his mansion in Bethesda, MD last night, I was still nervous. but his wife opened up the huge doors to reveal a palace of a home (with glass ceilings!) and as soon as I sat down and President Harrison asked me to say the prayer, the Lord's spirit was there. earlier that day, a friend wrote me the sweetest e-mail, explaining that there was no need to nervous for the interview. I didn't have anything to prove, and if Heavenly Father thought I was ready to serve a mission, then I was. I think I kept approaching these interviews like job interviews--that I had to prove myself, or convince the stake president that I was going to be a good missionary. this was not the case. I prayed for the communication my friend promised me would be there---that the spirit would allow President Harrison to feel the desires of my heart, and that I would be able to express my testimony and hopes to serve a mission. when I got done saying the prayer, he looked at me and said, "Have you already served a mission?" of course, that boosted my confidence.

the rest of the interview went really well. President Harrison was the mission president of the Belgium Brussells mission a few years back and has a lot of experience with missionaries. needless to say he was very thorough and extremely loving. we talked a lot about our family, India (he had even been to Chennai with Rising Star!), and about body image. I've never had a serious problem with body dismorphia or an eating disorder, but he was wise to advise me that when you're constantly thinking about your body or hair or food or clothes, you can't focus on the investigator or the spirit. he told a story that one of his missionaries was so obsessed that he was losing his hair that he could no longer focus on serving the Lord. I think this was really good advice that I will surely remember.

I am so blessed and so happy. I don't think I've ever been happier. really, I feel so positive about the direction my life is taking and know that Heavenly Father has blessed me. He is quick to remind me of my purpose, and my inadequacies so I can come to the Savior and serve Him better. thank you all for your prayers. I am praying for you too!

and...I should be getting my call in the next few weeks. should we do some sort of conference call when it comes? I'm trying to be patient and realizing it may not come until I'm home in Utah. and that will be just fine. love you all.

Hi there

Hey everyone! i'm sorry for not posting on my blog in a long while. Jon and I are trying to save money and the internet took the cut. But I will really try to post something new this week (you all need to see Eli's new tricks) I love you all! : )

Grand Canyon Vacation

wow! how exciting to have a family blog!

The first and foremost issue at hand is a family vacation. As you can see from the title of this post, the destination is the Grand Canyon!

Amy is getting home from D.C. on August 7th. Melissa's School starts around the 16th(?) and needs to get to Michigan before then. A few of us might need to request time off of work (jon and jen will you be able to request work off?) or work things around in our schedules. SOO we need to pick some dates.

The idea is for the trip to be short, sweet, and cheap. We will probably only be 2-3 days, and we will be camping. People can come and go whenever they can get there. Once we have the dates picked, we can divide up meals and activities between all of us. Hopefully everyone can come (at least even for a little bit)! It's not the biggest notice, but pretty good I would say for the McDonald Family, right?

So I will just throw out some dates and everyone say their preference. I am literally making these up, so anyone say what they think.



August 8th - 11th
August 9th - 11th
August 10th - 12th


what do you all think?

Hello?

Is this Mommer's and Dadder's blog?? Am I in the right building?

Chewing

The other night, Dad came home with the idea that we needed to chew our food more....50 times per bite to be precise. You might think this is a reasonable amount of times to chew a bite of food, and over the ensuing weeks, I have found there is one thing that does stand up well to this level of mastication, that being well-cooked steak. However, a lot of food we eat during the summer, food like cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, pasta, rice....doesn't bear up well for quite that long.
Despite the fact that most food is pretty much gone well before 50 chews, even 10 or 20 is enough to significantly alter the dinnertime dynamic from a lively conversation to one of quiet and contemplative chewing. It was during one of these long pauses....that I was able to capture these pictures of our parents.
The reason for all this chewing is to take more time enjoying the bites we have taken, not gulping it down without tasting it. It can also be a weight loss strategy, in the context of other efforts,though it might also be useful for stopping or at least stifling awkward dinner conversations.
We have decided that chewing, like all things, must be done in moderation, and have so cut back, as appropriate, from a rigid prescription of 50 per bite. The truth is that we usually just forget and go about wolfing our food, when someone will mention, "chewing," or say, "Let's chew our food tonight." With a common understanding of the philosophy, we will proceed to have a moment of reverence for at least a few well-chewed bites.

Hom Swet Hom

Welcome home, my darlings! Melissa has set up this family bog for us, and I'm so excited to learn to make the most of it, so we can keep in touch even better as our lives get busier. Melis posted these photos, and we're going to set it up so that everyone can put up photos, video, links, articles, etc. , as well as posts and comments. I intend to learn how it's all done, and I'm sure you all will be my best teachers.

To begin with, here are some of the things I was thinking we would do here:

• Family Reading Club: Read books together and share our thoughts about them
• Calendar visits and events
• Share great finds in the marketplace
• Get advice and input from each other on big decisions, purchases
• Comment on current events (without exposing ourselves to the world at large)
• Share recipes
• Recommend books and music we're each enjoying
• Share memories and family stories
• Plan holidays and trips together
• Report on holidays and trips we take separately (things you might not want to tell the whole world, just family)
• Update the fam on your creative and/or work projects
• Update everyone on the progress of children and grandparents
• I'm sure you have lots of ideas too.

I can't wait to see what everyone contributes. I love looking at your individual blogs and I see this as a way to build not only our family closeness and communication, but also our family narrative for the years to come.

Some fun things we can do:

1. keep up with running conversations using "Labels"

2. become "Followers" so that we get email notification of new posts

3. link to your blogs

Comment abundantly. If you have some tech savvy to contribute to the appearance and enhancements of our blog, jump right in. Let the wild rumpus start!