33 YEARS

Saigon Branch Anniversary

The Van Nguyen (Huy's father, pronounced "Tay") emailed the family the following today:

"This Sunday, April 27, will be exactly 33 years since the last Sunday, April 27, 1975 when the Saigon Branch had the last Sacrament and also it was the day Lien (Huy's mother) and the rest of the family, except me and Liem (Huy's uncle), were evacuated by plane."

The following article was written in memory of this event. I thought it was worth sharing and that it might interest some of you. My in-laws have quite a remarkable story (we hope to get Huy's mother to write her side of the story one day) and they are quite remarkable people who have perservered through much adversity. I love them and am proud to be their daughter-in-law. Their amazing experience is captured in The's book titled "When Faith Endures." I've read this touching story and would recommend it to all.

Article from the MormonTimes.com, April 24, 2008.
http://mormontimes.com/WC_aroundChurch.php?id=966

It's here. It's finally here!

Taylin fell and hit her mouth and teeth pretty bad one day in a hotel on vacation when she was 2 years old. When she was 4, the dentist had to pull three of the teeth because they had died (yes, teeth can die). Really, only two teeth needed to be pulled, but she would have been left with one of her two front teeth and a space on each side (often times called a snaggle tooth) and we didn't want that so three teeth were gone...

We wondered how long she would be missing her three teeth...

The two front teeth did come in, somewhere around age 6...

And last week, I noticed the third and final tooth is coming in. Yeah! We have waited a long time for this. She is just shy of turning 8 years old!

Kaylie has peculiar habits.

Habit #1

She has an uncontrollable urge to make pillow beds where ever she goes. If there is something soft and/or puffy, she will turn it into bed, either for her stuffed animals or sometimes herself. Here is just a sampling for about a weeks worth - there is definately, at least, one new bed everyday somewhere in the house!

(Notice stack of books pictured above!)

(Sometimes Tanner and Taylin join in.)

She will also ask to take as many animals as I will allow with her into the car, but she has learned that they will not go into stores, or school, or dance, or where ever we go. Sometimes she will buckle them in her seatbelt "to keep them safe" while she is away and she often asks me to take care of them while she is gone to school.

As noted in the last picture, on occasion, she is also known to tie things up using, again, whatever means have been given her - a rope, an elastic, a string, a slinky, I mean whatever!

Habit #2

We have several Book of Mormons on a shelf (one for each of us for scripture study and then an few extra, one in Vietnamese for Huy's casual reading!) that Kaylie will carry with her around the house. Often times they will belong to the stuffed animals beds (pictured above). I can put them away on the shelf where they belong for a time, but as she "passes by them," she will begin to carry them around again. This is a constant battle with all of the above obessions - she gets it out, she makes a bed for it, I put it away, she forgets about it for a time, she gets reintroduced to it for some reason or another, she makes a bed for it, and I put it away again until the next time, usually a day or two later (if I'm lucky)!

(Reading from the Book of Mormon)

All very peculiar!

Congratulations Linh!

Twilight is the correct answer!
I owe you a candy bar or something big for enjoying my last post and figuring it out! I just had to share my only connection to the book, and soon-to-be-movie.... T W I L I G H T! It almost makes me want to read it myself!

But for those who are interested, they are filming the movie for it in Oregon, my homeland. It's acutally being filmed at that house (previous post) and in areas around the town of St. Helens, which is where my sister lives. She says she passes by that house most days on her way to her daughter's school. There have been crews there for several weeks now and some of my sister's friends have been scoping it out regularly. They actually met (and had pictures taken with) the girl who will be playing Bella and a few others. They were able to walk through the house before any of the actors arrived and saw that decorators had been there setting the house up with pictures and artifacts that pertain to the story (picture of Bella's drawing in previous post).

So for those of you who are fans, I just thought you might want to know these few tidbits!

Do these mean anything to anyone???

Clue #1 Pictures taken in St. Helens, Oregon.

Clue #2 Pictures are from a movie set.

Clue #3 I am not a fan, but you may be.

Let me know if you have answers for me or want in on more details about "my connection!" (Thanks to my sister, Tammy.) Just thought some of you might be interested.

Kaylie Kaylie Bo Baylie

There are a few choice words and phrases that I've been needing to write down before I forget. These are some of our favorites...

"Back and fort"

"Dear Heavenly Fodder"

"But I do."

(This one needs a bit of explanation - She is very quick to say "no" to most everything, and I hope this is because she is four and that it will change, but then sometimes she changes her mind, like girls can, and she says it and drags it out. Gotta hear it to get the full effect.)

"Sheshell"

And I'm sure there have been others, but I can't seem to think of them now. I should know that I need to write them down when she says them! Darn she is cute!

Nordstrom

Okay, so many of you know that I love Nordstrom. It's a love-hate relationship. Love the clothes and shoes and make-up, but hate that it is a bit expensive. And I will admit, I've been spoiled by my mother. She and I share fond memories of my junior high and high school days, in the summer, going to the Anniversary Sale. First, we memorized the catalog and it would be marked up with the must-haves. Then, it would begin early, I think it opened at 7:00 am and we would wait in line outside the doors around 6:00 am to be the first in the doors so we could get those coveted items marked in the catalog. We would load up the clothes in our arms, as much as we could carry, and then wait in another line to get into a fitting room that was usually just a curtain and not very private. We would spend hours in my department, The Brass Plum, and then, when we had decided for me, we would go to my mom's section and she would get a few things too. And then finally, down the escalator to the shoes. After loading up there, we hauled it all to the car and home we went to pull it all out again and over the next several days, we would admire the loot, convince my dad what a good deal we had gotten because "it was on sale!" It was nuts now that I think about it.

But anyway, the reason this whole topic is even brought up... My brother, Lance, called me one afternoon, which is a little unusual for him to call me in the middle of the day, but I was delightfully surprised. He was in Utah for business and he needed to know how to get to Norstrom because he has been looking for a pair of shoes, but hasn't been able to find one. So he thought that he would see if Nordstrom had one out of desperation. Sadly, but lucky for him, I was able to give him explicit directions to the Nordstrom at Fashion Place Mall.

A few weeks later...
Yesterday I asked him in an email how his trip to Nordstrom went, and asked him if he was able to find what he needed. This was his reply...
"Nordstrom's ticks me off. Nothing worth wearing. One pair caught my eye until I saw $425! Is that in Peso's? Do they levitate?"

There are many reasons this makes me laugh-out-loud. One, he's my brother and I think he is just too funny. Two, I think I knew he wouldn't find anything there that he would be willing to pay, but I didn't want to squish his hope of finding what he was looking for at my favorite store. And three, can shoes levitate or do can they make us levitate?

I love my brother! Thanks Lance for helping inspire me to write about my favorite things...
You and Nordstrom!!

And thanks Lance for making me smile today!