Comic-Con!
Following is a long ramble about all our fun at Comic-con.  

Ruth's Mandalorian Cosplay

What an amazing weekend Ruth and I had a Comic-con.  Our local con is the 3rd largest in the USA, over 100,000 people attend.  It's quite a large pond to make a splash in, but splash we did. I saw panels with Jenna Coleman (Doctor Who), Felica Day (the Guild), Christopher Gorman (Covert Affairs), James and Oliver Phelps (Harry Potter), Sabastian Stan (the Winter Soldier), Anthony Daniels (C3Po), the voice actors from Pinky and the Brain, the Animaniacs, and the Simpsons, and Studio C (skit comedy show).   At the con you can pay money for an autograph or photo with your favorite stars, but I am morally opposed to paying $60 for some other human-being's signature, but we would go to the signing tables just to see the actors.  So at the signing tables we saw quite a few other famous people including Agent Carter and Scottie (who is quite old looking now).

Me asking a question

At these panels they usually open them for questions from the crowd. I've never asked a question but when I found out that my favorite actress was coming (and because I refuse to pay money for autographs) I knew my only opportunity to talk with her would be in a panel.  So I wrote out my question, made an attempt to be there really early (which failed) and then ran up to the front to line up at the microphone.  I figured that even if I didn't get to ask my question, the view from standing in the front was much better than sitting in the back of a room with 4,500 people.   I ended up being about the 10th question, and before I could ask my question, Jenna said she liked my costume, and then they put the camera on me and everyone clapped at cheered. It was really surreal.  She was very nice in answering my question and it was such a fun experience that I asked questions in two more panels that day to Felica Day and Christopher Gorham. And then later I had the chance to meet Christopher Gorham and shake his hands and I was a big idot - don't ask.

This is who I was cosplaying

I played Missy the entire con and was stopped constantly for photos, either because they loved Doctor Who or they thought I was Mary Poppins.  I even had one father ask me to discipline his children as Mary Poppins.  I would estimate that I probably was asked over 120 times over the weekend to take photos with people. If they thought I was Mary then I would smile, but if they knew I was Missy then I could scowl, or even kill them with my disintegrating device.  I killed three Osgoods (a very popular character on Who that Missy killed last season) and several other random people in pictures this weekend.  It was odd, but very fun.

Some of our photos and the fun people we met.

Ruth dressed in her Star Ward Mandalorian costume (Ruth built and designed this costume herself) on Thursday and Friday and she also got stopped quite a bit to take pictures. I had to warn one handsome and friendly boy that Ruth was my daughter and he should back off (and I had a disintegration device to back it up).  Ruth and I spent most of Friday apart, so I'm sure she has her own fun and interesting con stories to tell.

view from front of ballroom

Saturday was the cosplay contest.  It's hard to describe to people who are not familiar with this world, but this is a pretty big deal. Salt Lake is the 3rd biggest con in the USA and some people fly in from all around the USA to compete at the Masters level.  There are thousands of dollars given out in prizes.  Ruth and I were competing as intermediates (Ruth had to change from her Mandalorian into the Cyberman in the bathroom - it was an adventure). The level of craftsmanship and skill of those we were competing with was amazing! True artists working in leather, metal, fabric, and foam. It really was just an honor to be competing against so many amazing costumes. 

Some of the other cosplayers in the contest - to give you an idea.

Everyone we talked to was so nice and we all had a great time sharing our experiences and expertise.  They cued us in the big ballroom, and there were maybe around 2000 people there.   We had one minute on stage and were judged on costume accuracy, diversity of materials used, and stage presentation. The celebrity judges scores were then added to our prejudging scores to determine winners in each level.  Ruth and I worked out a stage routine and it went pretty well.  We were just trying to have a good time.

At the end of the competition we were called with several others to go back stage.  When we got called up we knew then that we had won something but had no idea what.  They announced first, second, and third in the intermediate division and Ruth and I were not called out. Eventually we were standing all alone back stage and all the winners had been announced.  We thought that maybe it was a mistake and we hadn't won anything.   They called up the celebrity judges to thank them and then announced that they were awarding the Judges Choice Award - and it was us! We got a trophy and got to bow while people clapped.  It was really amazing!  And super surprising because there were so many incredible costumes that were so much better than ours. 

After the competition we stayed and took pictures, and then, because Ruth was absolutely dying in the Cyberman, we went to the bathroom to change out of it.   As she was changing I started wondering if we won any money or anything in addition to the trophy. I doubted if we did, but I know that the winners got cash prizes.  Coming out of the bathroom I ran into someone who had won third place in their division and I asked them if they won money as well and they said that they did.  So I went back down to the stage and everyone was cleaning up and I asked a worker.  A few minutes later the worker came back with an official looking woman with a clipboard who said she was glad I had found her and asked if I had earned more than $600 this year in cosplay contests - I'm thinking - who the heck earns more than $600 in cosplay contests?  She was relieved when I said no because that meant I didn't have to fill out tax forms and she handed me an envelope.  I thanked her and walked out, back down the hall to find Ruth waiting for me.  It was then with Ruth that I turned over the envelope and saw that our prize money was five hundred dollars.  We were almost the last people there, and we were jumping and screaming a hugging in our costumes in the dark empty lobby.  It was all just crazy.

Me as the Master

Ruth as the Cyberman

We made a great team.

Winner winer chicken dinner!

 Cosplay Pre-Judging

On Saturday Ruth and I competed in the first round of our comic con's cosplay contest. We will find out in the next day or so if we will be appearing on the stage for the big event. We are pretty confident that we are, as they moved us out of the beginners category into the intermediate, even though I do, in fact, qualify as a beginner.  The down side is that the competition will be harder, and we probably won't win anything. The up side is that the judges thought we were really good.  To put it into context, there will be over 2,000 people attending this contest and the prizes are in the hundreds of dollars.  Last year I didn't make it past the first round, so it would be cool to actually be able to make the stage and compete.

Comings and Goings

In the past few weeks we've said goodbye to my nephew Benjamin, who is serving as a missionary in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and we've welcomed back my nephew, Orion, who was serving in California. Both events involved family gatherings and fun.

Jared and his YoYo

Jared's been yoyoing for awhile now, and this last week he had me sell some of his legos so he could buy a fancy new yoyo.  He was so excited when it came!  I took a video of him doing a trick and then Jared edited the video for me. I'm posting it below.

Kaitlin Almost Done at CCM

Email me if you don't have Kaitlin's blog address where I'm posting her letters.  While she has had some good experiences at the Missionary Training Center in Buenos Aires, she is ready to get out in the real world and get to work. She flies to Asuncion on Tuesday.  

Happy Five-Oh 

50 candles on the cake!

I'm not sure how AARP knew, but their membership invitation letter arrived just in time for Chuck's birthday.  Yes, Chuck turned 50.  He started his birthday by staying home from work and going to the doctor. Yes, Chuck was sick on his birthday.  He'd been sick for awhile and finally went in and got put on antibiotics.   After going to the doctor Chuck went to work, and because it was the end of the month ended up staying late to finish reports. By the time he got home he was tired and sick and opted to watch TV for his birthday activity. So that's what we did. We ate a birthday dinner, had some birthday brownies, opened up some birthday presents, and watched some birthday TV.  Happy five-oh Chuck!

Comic Con Scavenger Hunt

On Saturday Chuck and I participated in a scavenger hunt around downtown sponsored by our local con.  Wearing costumes we raced around town with 10 clues trying to find 10 locations.   Each location had some cosplayers whom we would get raffle tickets from and took pictures with.  We had 4 hours to find all the locations, collect the tickets, and take the photos.  Being a team of two adults (Ruth and Jared didn't want to come), we did pretty well finding the clues.  We got lost with the homeless people one time, and another time went to where the Opera offices were rather than where they preform, and one clue we found accidentally when we turned down a side road to turn around and then saw the clue, but in the end we were the 24th team to check in and we won two passes to all three days of comic con, worth $120 and have been entered into a raffle for more prizes.  Not bad.  We had a good time and met lots of nice people. 

Backpacking with the Scouts

Jared did his first hike-in backpacking trip with the scouts last weekend.  He hiked several miles and over 1000 feet with his troup to a lake.  He didn't like the hiking, but said the lake was pretty fun.  He took his yo-yo along and did tricks as they hiked to pass the time.

Back to School

Both kids started at new schools this week.  Ruth started at the high school. She is most excited about debate and ballroom dance.  She worked hard over the summer on homework for her AP and honors class, including reading The Count of Monte Cristo.   Jared has liked his first week at the middle school. He says that his favorite class so far is science.  He is also doing band. It's helped in his transition that he has several friends in most of his classes.

 

First Week of Quiet

This week was a change for me as well.  Ruth and Jared started school, Chuck is working for the first time in six months, Kaitlin is gone, and I do not have a job.   The idea that the school year had started and I had not found a job did not sink in until this week.  I met with some friends and I worked some projects to keep me distracted from this distressing new status in my life.  I really have no idea what I want to do with myself.  

Two Buck Tuesday

2 stories up in the jungle climb

There is a new children's science museum just 25 minutes from our house, but because it is expensive and all my children are out of the targeted age, we've never gone.  Enter Two Buck Tuesday, a day you can get entry for two dollars.  Ruth, Jared, and I braved the crowds of other deal seekers and ventured. It turned out to be a really great museum and there were some areas that we aimed at the older crowd that we really enjoyed. Worth two buck for sure.

"Prison of Angels"

Learning about forced perspective

This is how Kaitlin described her first week learning about how to be a missionary in the Argentina Missionary Training Center, or CCM as I will henceforth be referring to it as.  We were super excited to get our first full email from Kaitlin on Thursday.  If you are interested in reading her emails, I am posting them on her blog.  You can email me for her blog address.

And She's Off

The night before Kaitlin left for Paraguay we sat in the livingroom together and, having done the last inventory, we zipped up the suitcases that had taken residence in the livingroom for the past week.   The only way I can describe the feeling was that it felt a lot like Christmas Eve to me. You may have to be a mother of many children to appreciate this, but there is a feeling, late in the night's depths of Christmas Eve, when the last package is placed under the tree, and last detail attended to, that is part satisfaction part melancholy.  Putting on a month of Christmas for a house full of children is a great work, and getting a missionary ready to spend 18 months in a third world country is a lot like that - times five. 

The process of buying items and packing bags is a tricky one.  There is the list that the church gives you, and a list that her mission gave her, and then many other lists from other missionaries and missionary mothers.  But in spite of all the lists, the reality is that we had no idea what Kaitlin, personally, would need. We didn't know what was available there, we didn't know if she would be in the city or country,  we didn't know so many things.  So in all this not knowing, we just hoped for the best, trying to strike a balance between being prepared and not overburdening her with stuff.   Finally there was the trick of packing all this preparedness into two suitcases that weighed under 50lbs each.

We were lucky that Kaitlin flew out in the afternoon.  That gave us all a chance to sleep in and have a few hours of quiet to do last minute things.  We ended up with free time before we had to leave and so, at Kaitlin's request, we did some Nauvoo dances around the house to pass the time and work out our nerves.

The airport was full of missionaries coming and going. We must have seen eight different missionaries come home in the time we were there.  It was hard to say goodbye to Kaitlin, but mixed in there with the sadness, I really felt proud of her, and I felt satisfied that we had done a really good job raising and preparing her for this.

When we came home from the airport, we discovered this internet site where you can watch little graphics of airplanes fly across the world (kind of like the Santa tracker websites, but without the gifts in the morning).  When I finally fell asleep, Kaitlin's little airplane was over Jamaica and I was happy to see in the morning that her little plane was sitting safely in Buenas Aires.   We got a short email later that morning from Kaitlin saying that she had a great flight and was safely at the MTC.   We hope to get a long email from her on Thursday of this week.



Openhouse

Thank you to everyone who came to and helped with Kaitlin's open house on Sunday.  Kaitlin spoke in church and did a great job. We had a pleasent time visiting with so many of you.   Kaitlin was really happy about how the day had gone.

Getting Ready

Most of the past two weeks has been getting Kaitlin ready to go. We did a lot of shopping and packing, but there were also a few things on Kaitlin's bucket list that we needed to get done.  One of those things was to have a dress up day, and so we did. We dressed up and went out to lunch.  Jared refused to dress up but he did consent to taking our pictures.   Another of our last minute things was to get re-fingerprinted and work on getting all her paperwork done, as well as all of her financial things settled.


Chuck's New Job

Chuck has now been working at his new job for two weeks.  The company is brand new and they are just getting started with basic things, so Chuck has been writing reports about how to write reports and that sort of thing.   He has also been learning how to use the train, and what to do with his train time, and how to navigate downtown. So far, so good.

Recovering from Nauvoo

God truly carried us while we were serving in Nauvoo. He quickened our minds and gave us strength beyond our own.  But as soon as our time in Nauvoo was over we all crashed.  The kids slept as much as they could on the drive home, and now, five days later we are all still tired and many of us are still sick.  But no rest for the weary because we got things to do!

Getting Kaitlin Ready

Two important things happened the first day we were home.  Firstly, we got Kaitlin's travel plans. Kaitlin has flight reservations for Wed, August 12th. She'll be flying into Atlanta, and then direct to Argentina.  Secondly, we learned that Kaitlin's FBI paperwork, that we had been waiting on for three months, had been rejected.  After some panicked phone calls to the church we were put in contact with a company that can expedite Kaitlin's paperwork. So we rushed down and got Kaitlin fingerprinted again and within hours had the paperwork resubmitted.

We finished Kaitlin's cloths shopping before we left but left the finer details, those little things that pull outfits together, until now.  Kaitlin put a cry for help out on our Relief Society's facebook page, and our neighbor, Kathy Romero, came over and shared her fashion genius with Kaitlin. She even took Kaitlin to her house and came back with armloads of cloths and scarves, which she expertly matched with Kaitlin's things, creating a myriad of very cute outfits.  She was super generous with her possessions and time and left Kaitlin joyful and grateful. 

Kaitlin and I also worked on planning out her farewell party on Sunday, and we also went out to take mission pictures, which all turned out very cute.

Getting Chuck Ready for Work

Chuck starts at his new job on Monday. He's been reading up on the company and getting ready for his first day.   In addition to the new downtown commute, Chuck's new company has a higher dress standard than his last job.  So this week we went shopping to get some business casual attire. He is excited and nervous to start this new adventure.