Tyler's Mission call

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zLqkji99_Q

I seriously hope you can open the link to Ty's mission call video, 'cuz it's really awesome!!!
I don't even know where to start to describe the amazing things I've felt and seen over the past few weeks as we prepared to receive Ty's mission call. Even going back YEARS, so much has led to this moment, it's hard to describe it all.

Let's start here. Every one of these guys has received his mission call. These are the kind of people my son chose to have in his life for the past 19 years. Amazing young men, on and off the football field, in and out of the classroom. Just a really great influence on each other. Most of them drove home from SUU the weekend before finals just to be there for Ty when he opened his call. They all love and support each other so much, it's a blessing to know that Ty has them in his life. 

So to the weeks before his call finally came. Ty has been terrified that he'd go to Asia or a country where he'd have to deal with snakes (his biggest fear in THE world) or spiders or rotten meat hanging in the streets or any number of other challenges he could have faced. He would have served the Lord wherever,of course, but he really wanted to stay in the United States. Well, he got his papers in, and the wait began. 

Every Wednesday we walked out to the mailbox to see if that big white envelope was here. And week after week, it wasn't here. Just in case it was a day or two late, we did the same thing on Thursdays and Fridays, then by Saturday we had given up all hope of it arriving at all. Kurt was getting irritated, because we were planning to open it at Tracy's house, and she had a nice dinner, cute decorations and fun stuff planned, so they really needed to know WHEN to plan the event. We checked with the Bishop every Sunday, and for like three weeks, his status said "Call has been assigned", so we knew it was coming. On Wednesday April 24th, I went over to the Manti temple to do an endowment session. I wanted to pray in the celestial room about Ty and also about Ashli and Mack as they are in the process of moving to St George and I needed to accept the fact that I won't see them every day:( 

So, anyway.... as I left the dressing room at the temple, I saw sweet little Norma Bramall, from the old Nephi 3rd Ward. I love when I see 3rd warders in the temple. It is the ward where I raised my kids, and there are so many wonderful people there.  As I turned the corner, Sister Ora Mae Mellor was sitting at the desk. She is the wife of our former 3rd ward bishop, Chuck Mellor. So that was another amazing moment. Then I went to get the name of the person for whom I would be serving that day, and Sister Dixie Boswell, also from the Nephi 3rd ward,  was the one who escorted me through the new name curtain to begin my session. The new name that day was SO special to me. I cried before I even left the cubicle. Dixie hugged me and told me how much she loves our family, asked if Ty had his call yet and told me to be patient. Her husband, Lynn, was Tyler's cub scout leader when he was 8 years old. Ty was the ONLY boy in the den, and week after week, Lynn planned amazing projects for Ty, while Dixie made treats and handled it as if there were a den full of boys. They had a tremendous influence on Tyler's life. 

About two years ago, their son, Brent, published a book "Brother's Bones"and asked Ty to be the cover model for his book, so the family means a lot to us, and it was so great to share that moment with Dixie on Wednesday. As I entered the chapel, I saw Adria Packard, Tyler's first stunt partner from the Snow College cheer squad. I was struck by the fact that on the day I was there to pray about Ty, I was surrounded by people who have had a profound influence on his life in the past, present and future. It was an amazing, humbling feeling. In the world room, I looked up to see the painting of Christoper Columbus, which always reminds me of Ty because he played Columbus in the Nephi Elementary School 1st grade play (of which Dixie Boswell was the director). So it was an amazing temple session, and I was just sure that I would find a mission call waiting at home when I returned from Manti that Wednesday. 

But alas.... 

So by Thursday, Kurt was getting really upset. I quit texting him back, because I really didn't know what to say. The Bishop could only check the status and there was not much we could do beyond that except wait. So, what did I do? Took a nap, of course. And dreamed that the mission call was in the box for apartment B because we had put the wrong box number on his mission papers. I jumped up from my nap, called Ty and asked  him to come over to my place so we could just look online and make sure we had given them the right address. I called Ken and asked him to go over to the post office and see if Kevin Bright could get us into the box for B in case the call was there. Ty got online,and sure enough, we had NO box number on his mission papers. He emailed the church to explain what had happened and asked if they could send the call to our PO box.  He no sooner hit "Send" than his cell phone rang. It was the institute secretary, who told him that his call was over at the post office and if he didn't pick it up that day, they would have to send it back to Salt Lake. Kevin had been calling bishops from the YSA wards for the previous week to try and locate Ty, as his call had arrived with no box number. It just didn't click to him that Ty was mine, as Kevin has now been delivering my mail for over a year with my new last name, and just didn't register that it was Allred before. He didn't think to call home wards, because most kids in Ephraim go to singles wards, so our bishop didn't get a call from Kevin that week. Kevin finally thought to call the institute and see if they could locate Ty. So when they called, we jumped in the jeep and headed to the post office. As we turned the corner from  Main Street, Ken called my cell and said that he was holding Ty's call in his hands. He had gone into the post office just as all of this was unfolding and it all finally came together. We met Ken in the parking lot, and Ty finally had his call! Kurt was working in Cedar City, so we waited until Saturday the 27th to open it in Nephi. 

 We all showed up in Yankees gear, because that's what we do. When Riken arrived in his "New York fan" onesie, noone even imagined that Tyler would be called to the ONE mission out of 405 missions in the church where Yankee stadium is located. Sure, he had hoped that he'd go there, but never once did anyone think it would actually happen.

This kid LOVES New York. This FAMILY loves New York. Tracy's family loves New York. We love the city, the state, the Yankees, the whole works. When people talk about their dream vacations, this is ours. Not Hawaii or the Caribbean. New York. And Ty gets to serve there for two years. This is no accident. Our Heavenly Father knows my son personally. There is absolutely no place Tyler would rather go to serve his mission, and I am so grateful that this is the place where he gets to be. It's a blessing that Tyler deserves 100%. He is a good man and he will be an amazing missionary. 

 Lots of people were there to support Ty, but I was especially grateful for my beautiful sister and nieces for being there as I went to Tracy's house for the first time. Tami had run a half-marathon that morning, and the girls had a track meet, but they came to support Ty even after a long and crazy day for their family.

Ah, my amazing kids. I love them all so much. They all bring something different and beautiful to my life, and I look forward to the amazing things we will see from all of them in the years to come. Check out the baseball caps. Not planned. It's just what we wear every day. We are psychotic Yankees fans. In fact, we leave in two days for a vacation to Denver which has been planned for six months. To see the Yankees play the Rockies. We heart New York. His call is no coincidence. My heart is full.

Oh, yeah... and THIS guy. I am so blessed. 

Ty's Patriarchal Blessing

Tyler got his Patriarchal Blessing tonight, as we prepare for him to receive his mission call, hopefully in the next week or two. Our Patriarch here in the Ephraim stake is Brother LeMar Hansen, and he is just an amazing man. 

I love that Ty got his blessing on Easter Sunday, and that all of us (me, Ken, Kurt, and Tracy) were here to participate in this experience with him. Kurt and I were the only ones back in the room with Ty and the Patriarch, but Ken and Tracy were in the front room with Sister Hansen, and it was just a beautiful experience for all of us. I can't remember every amazing thing Brother Hansen said, but here are some of the highlights. 

He told him more than once that Heavenly Father wanted him to know that He loves him. He said those were the most important words he would say throughout the blessing. 

He told Ty that he was placed in a situation in which he would be surrounded by good people to help him. He told him that people would hold his name in high esteem, that he would be confident and do great things to make the world a better place. 

He told him that history would not repeat itself. 

He said Ty would be a great husband and father. 

It was a really powerful blessing. Of course I cried through the whole thing. 

Like I'll cry when his mission call comes, and when he gets married, and blesses his first child, and all of the other times I'm going to weep with sheer love for this boy. 

I have been a terrible blogger lately. I mean, I'm SUPER busy, but everybody is super busy, right? 

We had Ashli's baby shower a few weeks ago, and I think I already blogged about it, but I wanted to go there again. This picture kind of captures the whole emotional experience. He gets it. He's there. I'm so blessed.

 So.. the shower! Ashli and I started talking about her baby shower early this past summer. We said "Let's do it in October" and it seemed SO far away at the time! She wanted a baseball theme and she wanted the men to be there, too. So we tossed around ideas for that. As we talked, we realized that LOTS of people would want to be involved in throwing her this big bash to celebrate little Riken coming into this world. I was still kind of anti-Ashli's dad at that point, and she laid it out for me. She said "If people can't get along, they just need to stay away from the hospital when the baby is born." We were sitting in her backyard, and her meaning couldn't have been more clear. It was time for me to cowboy up and remember what was important. So we wrote out a list of who would want to be involved in Ashli's shower, and we decided that Mack's Mom and myself would do the food. We live the closest and it would be the most costly of the ventures, so the Moms should do that. We asked my sisters to put together some shower games, and asked Kurt's girlfriend, Tracy, to do the invitations and the decorations. She is like a scrapbook store in and of herself. She used to do segments on "Good Things Utah" for scrapbooking stuff, so she was the perfect choice for that. It was important to Ashli that everybody she loves was in the same place at the same time, so I sucked it up and decided to be nice to Kurt and Tracy and just do it for Ashli's sake. They wanted to do their own shower for  Kurt's side of the family, but it's not what Ash wanted, so we all just came together. It was definitely the most unusual shower planning of all time. Tracy would text me questions about colors and tables and stuff, and I texted her back, and it all just came together without any of us actually sitting down in the same room and planning anything. My sisters arrived the night before to help us decorate baseball cookies and binky baby cupcakes, and we all got to the "venue" (the Moroni City park:) several hours early to make sure everything was just the way Ashli wanted it. It was great. The men stayed for the whole thing, we had great food, and people visited with each other. Nobody had to sit in a circle to play games. My sisters just went to each table and passed out the stuff for games, and it was so casual and so comfortable. Exactly how Mack and Ashli like their lives to be. Surrounded by people they love.

And this happened. I NEVER thought it would. We all got together for a family photo, and it was great. We're crazy and dysfunctional and the divorce was ridiculously painful for me. But we're a family and Riken has made us all see what is really important. We can't wait for this baby to get here. He is just what we all need. 

I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!