YAY!!!

I GOT A LETTER FROM SEAN TODAY!!!

I'm awesome, he's awesome, and life is GREAT!!!

Elder Herrmann

Coping

Sean is five days into his mission. I'm coping. I think I'm actually doing a decent job. If someone were to ask me, "How are you?" I would be lying if I said good, or great, or awesome. But I'm okay.

I just hope that he's okay too. I hope he's soaking up the the information that's being presented to him - that he's learning how to teach people, that he's learning the scriptures and messages contained therein, that he's learning the Spanish language.

I still miss him, sure, but he's where he needs to be. I'm where I need to be. I'm really hoping to hear from him soon - I want to know how he's doing so badly!

I talked to a friend who sent off a missionary (and married him after he came back), and she told me that she wouldn't trade the two years that he was gone for anything because it was such a wonderful opportunity for the two of them to grow - both individually and as a couple. I just need to take advantage of this. One of the emotions I felt when Sean left was a feeling of self-evaluation. Sean's giving two years of his life to the Lord, doing His will. What am I doing? Well, starting last night, I've made it a goal of mine to read the scriptures and study them everyday, even if it's only for a little while. I'm doing great so far - I'm 1 for 1!

Saying Goodbye. Again.

I loaned my best friend to the Lord today for two years.

I thought saying goodbye last Saturday was the hardest thing I'd ever done, but this was harder. After he hugged his family goodbye, he turned a shook my hand, said "I love you," and nearly ran out of the chapel, out the door "Missionary Exit." I walked out the door "Family Exit," fighting back the tears. I told him I didn't want him to see my cry today. I'm afraid he might have seen a few tears from me, but at least I didn't completely lose it. I suspect that he nearly ran out the door for two reasons. 1) I think he was close to crying and didn't want us to see him tear up. and 2) He is actually excited to go, which is wonderful.

He looked so official with his name tag on that said "Elder Herrmann" with "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (in Spanish) stamped onto it.

I came home, gave Leslie's wedding dress to his family to take back to California, and then cried. Yes, I'll admit it. I bawled like a baby. My best friend is gone for two years. I'm so used to being able to pick up my phone and call him whenever I want to, and now I can't. This will certainly be a big adjustment for me.

He'll be a great missionary, and he's doing what he needs to be doing. Besides, I'll see him in two years. Hopefully the time will go by faster than it has in the 3.5 hours it has been since I watched him walk through that "Missionary Exit."

¡Adiós, Elder Herrmann!

Saying Goodbye

"Goodbye's the saddest word I'll ever hear
Goodbye's the last time I will hold you near
Someday you'll say that word and I will cry
It'll break my heart to hear you say goodbye."

I had to say goodbye to Sean on Saturday. It was one of the hardest things, if not THE hardest thing I have ever had to do. Sean and I have dated for a year, and I have come to love him more than I ever thought I could, so it was really hard to say goodbye. He is leaving on a mission for church - he'll be a missionary serving in Houston, Texas, speaking Spanish, and will be gone for the next two years. As I've told him, the Lord is the only one I am willing share him with for that long. We stayed outside in his car talking (and crying, for me at least) for a while, and then he came inside to say goodbye to my family. When we were inside I gave him one last present - I played on the piano and sang "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" for him, which is one of his favorite songs. I had the hardest time singing it because I was crying. After I finished, I said to Sean, "Sorry, it was really hard to sing and not cry," to which he said, "It was really hard to listen and not cry." He loved it. My parents, who were in the kitchen (and not supposed to be listening!) said that it was beautiful and a wonderful present for Sean. Sean and I went outside again because he had to go to San Mateo, and we hugged for a long time, neither one of us wanting to let go of each other. When he finally drove off, I went inside and found my mom and dad waiting for me just inside the door with open arms to comfort me. Next time I see Sean, the only physical contact I can have with him is a brief handshake, as he is now a missionary. I'm going to dinner with him, Linda, Joe, and one of his sisters and her baby boy when they get to Provo to take him to the Missionary Training Center, where he'll be for nine weeks, learning the Spanish language and learning how to teach the gospel to the people of Houston.

I love him more than I can say and will miss him so much. Good luck on your mission, Sean. You will be a wonderful missionary and servant of the Lord. Godspeed.

New Years!

Happy 2009 everyone!

Like I said...I'm behind on this thing, so I'm trying to catch up.

Sean, Pieter, Mom, Dad, Leslie, and I went up to the cabin in Arnold on New Year's Eve day. We had almost made it (we were less than 2 miles away from the cabin), when we faced a hill covered with a sheet of ice in my dad's Camry. Unfortunately for us, the treads on the tires on that car were about worn out, coupled with the fact that neither Leslie nor I had ever driven in snow before, so we didn't make it up the hill. We were stuck, and my mom and dad, who were with the dog in the new CRV (which conveniently has 4-wheel drive and good snow tires) made it up just fine and then looked behind them and saw that we weren't coming anymore. They turned around, and my dad came down to rescue us (sliding down the ice all the way from the top of the hill down to us, which was pretty awesome). We all got out and he got in. He didn't have any control over the car either, but he got it so it was sliding down the hill again instead of being stuck in the middle of it. He also managed to do this really cool 180 so the car was even facing in the right direction! Go Dad! (He takes no credit for the 180. He says it was all the ice, and nothing more. I'll choose to believe that my dad has superpowers. It was THAT good.)

Anyways, we piled into the CRV and made it up to the cabin, where Sean and I started shoveling the driveway, which is REALLY steep. Put it this way - when we're not up there and it has snowed, the neighbor kids use it as a sledding hill because you can get going really fast. Just watch out for the asphalt of the road at the bottom after the roads have been plowed! We had a good 6-8 inches of snow on the ground, and there was a layer of ice underneath all of it, so it took a really long time to get the driveway clear enough for car to make it up (the Camry got to camp out at the bottom of the driveway. No way was it going up at all).

We had dinner, played a game of Risk (Leslie and Pieter cheated, so they destroyed Sean and I), watched Serendipity, and then Pieter ended up coming down with a really nasty 12-hour flu, so he was sick as a dog that night. We brought in the new year by going up on the indoor balcony that overlooks the family room and threw serpentine and mylar confetti stars everywhere. We made such a mess. I even got my New Year's kiss, which was fun. New Year's Day was pretty low-key...Baby New Year came and brough each of us a candy bar. Baby New Year is a Madsen family tradition started by my grandparents because they would shop the after-Christmas sales and then Baby New Year would bring presents for the kids when times were financially rough). Leslie ended up getting the bug that Pieter had, so she was miserable for a while. The day after New Year's, Sean, Pieter, Leslie, and I tried to go sledding up near Bear Valley, but it started snowing and the roads were getting really bad, so we turned around and went back to the cabin. Sean and I went on a walk in the woods behind the cabin and ended up back at the cabin having a mini-snowball fight, taking turns hitting each other and then throwing snowballs at the sliding glass back door of the cabin because my dad was on the other side of it. We found Pieter with a shovel at the front of the cabin, so we started chucking snowballs at him too, which was fun, until we realized that he had a distinct advantage of being able to throw tons of snow at once with his huge shovel. We came inside, soaking wet, but it was so fun. We made it home without incident, and we even got to stop at In-N-Out in Tracy on the way home. I love In-N-Out, and it makes me so sad that there isn't one anywhere near Provo...

I went over to Sean's house after we got back and we worked on cleaning out his room before he leaves. I folded what felt like a never-ending pile of clean laundry for him, and then we went shopping for his Christmas present from me (an electric razor).

Christmas!

I am so far behind on blogging...

So. Christmas. I spent Christmas Eve with Sean's family and we had dinner, and then opened presents. I even got a few! I got a bracelet from Elizabeth (Sean's stepsister), Joe (Sean's stepdad), and Linda (Sean's mom) that is made out of paint. I haven't tried it yet, but it seems like it'll be pretty cool. I got a box of homemade truffles (made by Sara, Sean's sister) from Sean. They're amazing. They look professionally made - and Sara said that she made 15,000 truffles this year - crazy! Best of all, though, I got a pair of pajama pants that Linda made for me! And they're pink! I love them. They have an LDS pattern too - pictures of a baby, a baptism, Primary kids, a Young Women's group, a girl reading the Book of Mormon, and a bride and groom standing outside the Salt Lake City Temple. Rinse and repeat. The pictures continue around and around, so the pattern just keeps going. They're so warm. Thank you, Linda!

Christmas morning was spent at my house with Mom, Dad, Leslie, Pieter, and Sean. I got a bunch of stuff, much of it is useful for me living on my own. I got a set of Henckel knives, which apparently are some really awesome and high quality, a "Sauteuse" pan to make crepes and other stuff in, a cookbook from my brother Scott and his family, a pass to go tubing in Midway from my sister Laura and her family, and a set of pens that look like syringes in different colors from my sister Aly and her family because I start the nursing program at BYU this semester. Sean gave me a brown sweater and a burnt orange long sleeve t-shirt. And stamps. Lots of stamps. I think he wants me to write to him while he's gone on his mission??? Leslie gave me a couple of long sleeve t-shirts as well as a beanie. It's like people think I live in Utah, where it's cold, because they keep giving me cold weather clothes! :)

We had a nice Christmas dinner, and then Sean had to rush off to work before dessert, so I went down to the movie theater where he was the manager (it was his last night of work too!) and gave him some dessert. Mmmmm...

I even got to have a third Christmas, on the 28th, with more of Sean's family. On Christmas Eve, it was Sean, Joe, Linda, and his stepsister and three stepbrothers (and the 4th is in Spain, so he wasn't there). On the 28th, it was Sean, Joe, Linda, and Sean's two sisters and their families. We had brunch and then the family opened more presents. It was so much fun being able to watch the kids opening their presents! After the fun of opening presents were over, everyone got ready to go to church. Sean spoke in church because he is leaving soon for his mission. Tons and tons of people afterward told me what a great job he had done. I'm so proud of him.

Ha! I almost forgot to talk about my excitement trying to get home for Christmas! I was supposed to fly out on the last flight going to Oakland from Salt Lake City on Southwest on Wednesday night. Well...our flight was delayed, and then eventually canceled. There had been a snow storm in Las Vegas that day, and the plane and flight crew that were supposed to be flying us to California got stuck there because of three lousy inches of snow. We were able to scrape together a first officer, flight attendants, and a plane, but we couldn't find a pilot ANYWHERE who would be able to fly us! We were stuck. We were able to get seats on the 6:30am flight out the next morning, but by this point, it was after midnight, so we decided it would be ridiculous for us to get a hotel that night or have Laura come pick us up from the airport, so we had a giant slumber party in the "Fishbowl" (I guess it's actually called the Rotunda) in the Salt Lake Airport. The people working there basically unloaded a plane and gave us all the peanuts, drinks, other snacks, earplugs (wonderful, wonderful inventions!), blankets, and pillows we could ask for. Of course, no one slept really well because there wasn't any really comfortable place to sleep, but I got a couple of hours of sleep, at least. Sean and I were both pretty bummed that we wouldn't be able to see each other that night and would have to wait until morning. We got on our flight in the morning, and made it, uneventfully after that night. Seeing Sean again was awesome. My mom and dad took us straight from the airport to Pieter's house, where we picked him up and then we went to Country Waffles for breakfast, and Sean met us there! It was so nice seeing him again - I had missed him!