It is so odd, weather-wise here! Last week was bitingly, freezingly COLD! Today is it 70 degrees and GORGEOUS. IT is a bit breezy, like a perfect day in late April or May. Today, walking Valerie in to school we were both like... it doesn't feel like Christmas, but it is undeniably GLORIOUS today.
The funny thing is- she NEVER wants to wear a coat (I wonder where she gets that from :-/) and since I got her the wool coat for her birthday (I will have to post pictures, she looks like a little fancy grown up), she wears it whenever I let her. I have always wanted a coat like that and I was worried she would not appreciate it, but she LOVES it and I am grateful.
Valerie fasted- really and truly for the first time this weekend. She was under the good influence of her friend, Vanessa. Vanessa is from Charlottesville and she stayed the night Saturday and after I told her our ward was fasting, she said she wanted to fast too and that she has breakfast, but skips lunch... all the way to dinner. So. There was the good example, and Valerie followed suit. She fasted for Vanessa's dad who is really having a time with his back. She was writing so furiously during Testimony meeting about how she was feeling and how she was praying that I could feel that precious child's testimony so dearly. I still have the notes, and I actually took them up to the stand with me when I went up to show my gratitude for the Gospel, my family, another birthday of Valerie's and FINALLY finishing graduate school. It was the most I have cried in church in a long, long time. In fact, the most I have cried about being done with the thesis... which trust me, I have been holding in. That was the single hardest experience of my entire life. Not only did I endure it, the meeting was the best one I have ever had. I felt the love of the Lord so strongly. The next day, going back to get the signatures of my advisor and committee was a joyous occasion and Valerie got to come with me. Everyone was so happy to see her. She is so blessed, her life is unrecognizable from my childhood.
Anyway, I just wanted to post something, that is what is in my head for the moment.
Love, Crystal
HISTORY
A Little History:
Our story begins in Pocatello, Idaho, circa 1972, when the lovely Debby Christensen agreed to a first, though fateful date with admirer, David Croshaw. Long story-short, he bade her follow him, and they went arm-in-arm to the Logan, Utah temple for establishment of an eternal family unit, Generation 1, on May 23 1973.
From their first blissful summer in Salt Lake City, educational pursuits took them to Provo/Orem, Utah, birthplace of Leslie and Rebecca, and to San Francisco/Oakland California, birthplace of Colin and Matt. Then, for establishment of livelihood, expansion of the tribe with Abby and Dana, and for raising/unifying of Generation 2, it was back to the roots in Pocatello for a rewarding sojourn.
In time, driven by a raging, but commonly shared sense of adventure and independence, one-by-one, Generation 2 escaped the homeland to distant regions of the country and the world, each ultimately developing their own tribal expansions by pairing with worthy mates and initiating Generation 3.
Now sensing fulfillment of their purpose in Pocatello, Generation 1 has also left those roots and transplanted to Cascade Idaho, from which base, they anticipate more abundant contact with The Posterity, Generations 2 and 3, in the future. That contact however, awaits fulfillment of a call to LDS missionary service in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, wherein they hope to help the state of the world by sharing the love of Jesus Christ.
So now, including Generation 0 (Grandma and Grandpa Christensen) home base includes Yuma, Arizona, Pocatello, Idaho, Cascade, Idaho, Vancouver, BC, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Spokane, Washington, Boise, Idaho, Los Angeles, California, back to Boise, Idaho, and on and on (Generation 3+) to infinity.
Our Mission Statement:
This is the blog of our eternal family unit. Initiated years ago, it served well as a journal, but even more so, as an archive of our personal interaction. It was a gathering place, a confabulation instrument, a unifying force for four generations of widely dispersed and progressively prolific posterity, and their valued associates. Though it served these purposes well for many years, it eventually took a back seat to new-kids-on-the-block, Facebook, and Instagram, and was sadly forgotten.
We now move to resurrect this blog with an added functional purpose of archiving the missionary experiences of Generation 1, of their movements and activities as they participate with The Gathering of Israel in the land northward. In so doing, we hope that via their own comments and posts, this blog will again serve to gather and unify the posterity and their friends.
As in the past, that the young and vibrant may know the old and tired, that enduring bonds may be fostered and maintained, that experience and encouragement may be openly shared, that posterity may embrace truth, and that hearts may be knit together, we must resist detachment despite our geographic divergence. We shall do so here.
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3 comments:
Thanks Crystal for sharing that. Becky is hoping for a little of that springlike weather. they have been without power for over 36 hours now. a lesson in preparedness. i was thinking about valerie today. how when i was shopping for her for christmas, some things just said to me--this is valerie!!! she is such a precious, unique person. i am so grateful for her addition to our family--and yours as well. it is such a blessing for matt to find someone like-spirited. what a wonderful mother you are to valerie. the party looks like it was a blast--and the runway!!! what an entrance for all those young girls. i too have felt so grateful for the multitude of blessings the Lord has given to us. this past year our cup runneth oer. did matt tell you--or did i tell matt--that colin has been offered an ER residency in cleveland? they are praying about it. congratulations again on finishing graduate school. you are awesome and i love you.
debby
I wish that warm would have lasted- by the end of the day, it was cold again... It is interesting about the ice, my mom just got electricity back after 4 days of none and my grandmother still has none so she is staying with my uncle.
We are going there, if all goes well, Saturday. I am SO EXCITED to see my family! I have not seen most of them in so long... and my brother, Jason, I have not seen since 1999.
The girls loved the runway, they came out and did a "fashion show" for about 2 hours. First in PJs then in church clothes. Then we made bath salts and everyone tried out the jacuzzi, then... well, it was a busy night after a busy day, but I can truly say that Valerie was happy. That was my goal.
Interesting aside- it took Matt all day to lay the red wrapping paper out and put lights down the border. (I was not here, if I was, I would have stepped in and done it myself). The reaction when we got home was priceless, Valerie was so proud, the and the girls had never seen anything like it. The wind messed up the red carpet yesterday morning so I took the lights and put them around the doorways and staked out the candy canes. It took me, at most, 10 minutes.
I just saw a picture of me on the Mary Baldwin website. I am too fat. I have known this, I just have not had time to do anything (exercise) about it with everything else that is going on... I need to get on that now.
Is now the time for me to say that it was 95 degrees in Monterrey last week? When it wasn't 95, it was 85 or 90. It was insane-- I was having a hard time believing it was really December-- especially when I almost froze my patooty off when I was here last December. The weather really is crazy.
The pictures were really fun to look at-- all of the girls looked so happy, especially Valerie. Glad you had such a good time. I wish we all lived closer so we could see /participate in those kinds of things in person.
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