Get Set...

Thanks for the mission guesses which have come in so far. Bryan's mission papers have been to Bishop Albrechtsen for two weeks. The Bishop has received back the dental and medical forms and has lined up the stake president's interview to complete the process. As of tomorrow, the entire package should be sent to Salt Lake...

Our map is waiting for any other guesses to be made over the next week or two while we wait. Post, email or call your guess to be pasted on the map.

As for our trip...we are less than three weeks from our departure date. Kevin has been working on booking our rail passes and lodging in Korea. Mark and Nana have reserved the guest lodging in their apartment building for us. My greatest worry at this point is that the mission call will come while we are away.

Mission Guesses

A few years ago while Kevin was waiting for his mission call, we put up a world map in our office and had everyone who knew him write their guess of where he would be called to serve. The map became covered with tiny slips of bright colored paper as everyone made their guess. Kevin's cousin, Amanda, guessed he would go to South Korea and earned a large bag of M n Ms for her insightfulness. Those slips of paper recently came down even though Kevin has been home for four years.

The map is still on the wall and is now waiting for guesses of where Bryan will go on his mission. I've got another bag of M n Ms (or your favorite candy) to the one who guesses the closest country/state of Bryan's call.

Post your guesses here and we'll put them up on the map and hopefully we'll know in a few weeks where our son will be spending the next two years.

On Your Mark...

I feel as though our feet are in the starting blocks of a great race. Bryan is just completing his mission papers. He visits with his dentist and doctor tomorrow for final signatures and then all that is left is the dreaded HAIRCUT for the missionary photo that must be uploaded to complete the paperwork.

Along with that, Kevin, Bryan and I have just purchased our airline tickets to South Korea and Japan. We will be flying out of SLC on Nov. 20th, Bryan's Birthday. We will then fly for 16 hours and land at Inchon International Airport. We will spend two or three days touring Kevin's mission area of Dacheon and then we will ferry to Japan where we will take the bullet train to Tokyo. We get to spend four or five days with Mark, Nana and their adorable boys seeing some of the sites of the amazing country they now call home. We will fly back home from Tokyo, Japan on Nov. 28th.

Our passports have arrived, the tickets are purchased, the papers are nearly completed: we are poised on our mark...

Happy Day, Baby Girl

Another birthday celebration is upon us at the Crouch household. Cami is 16 years old as of 8:33 a.m. October 5th! It is hard to believe that so many years have flown by in what seems to be a heartbeat. With the constant remindings we received during the countdown to this momentous day, you wouldn't think it could have snuck up on us like this, but it did.

Sixteen years ago last week, my parents traveled from Arizona to be with us and help out around the house during the recovery after our baby's birth. We had a planned C-Section and thought we knew exactly when the day would be, but on September 26, 1993 I had an amniocentesis performed and found that the baby's lungs were not developed yet, so my Dad returned home and left my Mother with us in Bountiful. That next week was one of the most fun and memorable times I've ever spent with my Mom. She cleaned the house like it had never been cleaned before...every window gleamed and the floors were spotless. We shopped, we went on long drives, we did some canning, we sat and talked and then when I did go to the hospital I knew my other three children were in the best hands possible. What a joy it was to bring home our new baby Camille and give her the middle name of Rose after her loving grandmother who had given us so much of her valuable time and energies.

Happy birthday, Camille Rose. We love you and are thrilled you are a member of our family. We hope you will strive to live up to that amazing middle name you've been given.

Some things you should know about Cami:

1. She has a beautiful smile, she is the only one of the four kids who didn't have to wear braces to get those straight teeth.

2. Cami is very kind especially to animals, older people and those who are less fortunate in anyway. She has a soft heart.

3. Cami plays the violin and now has a desire to play the guitar. We are currently shopping for the perfect instrument.

4. Her math skills have usually left her frustrated, but this year she is doing very well in Geometry. Don't ask her to do Algebra though.

5. This sweet face can be contorted into the funniest and strangest face you've ever seen. Ask her to do the "Gloo" for you some time.

6. Camille LOVES new clothes. She says she wishes she could draw better because then she could be a fashion designer. She is the family's fashion advisor and won't let us out of the house if she doesn't approve of the outfit.

7. She also loves to dance. She has a natural ability and rhythm. She wants to be a Cougarette at BYU while she attends college there someday.

8. Camille has a sweet testimony of the Savior and the gospel. She loves to attend EFY, Firesides, and other events where she feels the spirit. She earned her Young Womanhood award two years ago just before her 14th birthday.

9. Cami has great communication skills, she writes beautifully and expresses herself well in both written and verbal means...as illustrated by her constant use of a cell phone, computer and her mouth.

I've Often Wished I Could Paint

I've longed to be able to paint. It is something I've desired since I was a child, but today my heart aches because I don't have the skill to even poorly duplicate what I see in nature.

As I was driving to work in the predawn, when the sky was opalescent pink and the western mountains only tipped with the very first ray of the sun, a flock of Canadian Geese took flight from a farmer's field. Their necks were stretched far forward and their strong wings beat in unity as they instantly moved into their 'V' formation.

God must find such joy in His amazing creations. I can only imagine how he must delight in the beauties of his designs. There are times when I see grace and form or hear music that stirs my soul when I desire to have even a particle of that creative ability to make something so beautiful it almost hurts to see or hear it.