Catch Phrases
9 December 2019
Hello —
When you serve a senior mission, you are together a lot. All the time. As a result, like twins, we are beginning to form our own language. Or maybe we are just dull, and so repeat the same things over and over. Here is a sampling:
“I’m in the fourth grade.” Name that movie! It’s a line from Dan in Real Life and we quote it all the time. In the movie, Dan is a writer who just lost his wife. He has three daughters, the youngest of whom has his gift with language. She is always coming up with pithy sayings and phrases, and he keeps asking her, “Who told you that? Where did you get that?” Her response, “I made it up. I’m in the fourth grade.” It’s a running joke through the movie and the older sisters often chime in with, “Dad, she’s in the fourth grade!” Anyway, much of our life here is reading scriptures, preparing institute lessons, and as a result, we sometimes come up with pithy things ourselves. Most often they are derivative, and we name the source of inspiration, but every so often we say, “I’m in the fourth grade!” Now, as I write this I can’t think of anything profound we have said or taught, but we use that phrase a lot.
“You should…I should do a lot of things.” It started as a comeback to any suggestions, like “You should drop off these items on your way to the store” or something equally inane. I would retort with, “I should do a lot of things, like floss, family history, read my scriptures, service.” Haha. Aren’t we funny? Now, whenever we say a “You should…” sentence, we give our usual reply, but then add, “And I AM doing that!” because missions give you time for that. Aha! Progress!
“I’ve been working out.” That is a new one. Because frankly my workout schedule through my adult life has been pretty spotty. Jeff’s been better over the years, but we are no model examples. Since October, we have been working out 6 days a week. Incredible. Most incredible of all? I actually like it. When we find ourselves on a longer than planned hike or lifting heavy objects, we joke, “I can handle this. I’ve been working out.” We don’t look a whole lot different, but that’s ok. That’s not the goal. The goal is to lower our heart rate and cholesterol, avoid hernias, and be able to hike when wanted. Goals really shift after 50.
Are there inside jokes or phrases in your family? I’d love to hear them. I’m sorry if these don’t translate well. That’s sort of the definition of inside jokes, but I thought I’d share a little of our day-to-day-ness.
Other events we’ve been involved in this week:
Our apartment building Christmas Party, hosted by the Pacific Area missionaries.
Christmas ukulele group singing in Takapuna.
Me throwing a football (I’m working out!)
Panmure Stake Cantata . This is the whole thing, about 90 minutes. It was live streamed. The other videos are seconds.
We love you all!
Alyson and Jeff
Photo Album
Photos: We took a milk-and-mail-run to Kowau Island which is just that. It drives around the island delivering mail, food, picking up packages, people, etc. On the way we saw dolphins! On one of the stops, there was a tree that looks like the Tree of Life — huge flowers like snapdragons blooming tall on its branches. The red spikey flower is a Christmas Tree. They are blooming all over here now and so named because they bloom at Christmas time. They have green leaves, white buds, and red spikes with tiny gold flecks on the end. Truly Christmas!
