Mississippi Musings . . .

I suppose our countdown to leaving Mississippi begins. We have less than a year left of our stay here on the Gulf Coast, (actually, ten months.) We'll be going to Tucson next May, to go back to school for a one year Hematopathology fellowship. This should be a familiar feeling for our family, as Brent has been in school for about 11 years of our marriage. (Hematopathology just sounds cool, so thats okay.)

So here are some of the things we'll miss. Brent wearing "blues" on Mondays. He looks very handsome in uniform. Michael is dressed for swim lessons (which he was fine with until he realized he had to put his head under the water.)

We'll miss the live oak trees. (I'm not sure why they're called live, as opposed to dead.) Here's my tree hugger kids appreciating nature at a park across from the beach on 90 in Biloxi.

We'll miss the art. When the beautiful trees along the coast were killed by hurricane Katrina, instead of chopping them down and cutting them up for firework, the city had an artist create sculptures instead. Beauty out of devastation.

We'll miss picking blueberries in 94 degree weather with the humidity factor putting it over 100 degrees, at seven in the morning.

We'll miss hiking along the coastal forests in Ocean Springs, and checking out our friendly alligator (not shown).

So we'll make the most of our next ten months, and make some more Mississippi Memories.

So, The summer is coming to a close, and we've almost completed everything on the summer wish-list the kids helped put together at the beginning of the summer. (We still have "sew clothing" which, technically, we did with Kimberley's skirt. But I think Kayla and Kimberley and Karina were thinking more of sewing pioneer clothing.) Nauvoo was absolutely amazing. At first, I thought it would be nice, but I was more worried about the drive (14+ hours) than the destination. Isn't there a lesson in there somewhere? Parley Street, where the pioneers drove their wagons down to the Mississippi river as they left Nauvoo, with the temple on the hill behind them, was heart breaking, and inspiring. After visiting the various reconstructed houses, I've realized that the pioneers were a) short and b)very industrious. And I'll never be able to take for granted picking up eggs, milk, and bread (and clothes, shoes, matches, chocolate, etc. etc.) from Wal-mart ever again. Or complain about "what's for dinner" as I don't have to butcher the cow, and chase down the chickens or hunt the eggs. Or make the butter. Or bake bread in bustle ovens, although I have a great whole wheat bread recipe I bake from our church-bought wheat if anyone is interested. I've decided that parts of Nauvoo is like Broadway with the spirit. We were able to catch two of the shows, "High Hopes and Riverboats" and "Just Plain Anna Amanda" which were a lot of fun (for all our children, which is unusual!) The pageant was well worth the visit, all in itself. A couple of hours before, they have a sort of fair, where the kids get to play games (oh alright, the adults too) like walking on stilts (I'm not boasting when I admit I'm actually quite good) and stick pull, and tug of war, and pull-the-entire-family-of-five-kids-in-a-handcart. Brent and I would have to discuss how high or low to have the handles if we ever had to do that again. Did I mention that it rained just before the pageant? Here's the wet (wet) girls, pulling their (wet) brothers and a stray who hopped on behind Matthew. Attending the temple was a definite highlight. Brent went one evening, and I swam in the hotel pool with the kids, who'd had a very long, wonderful day, and needed some down time. The next day, I went while Brent took the kids for lunch in Nauvoo. (We stayed in Keokuck--I just had to add that because its fun to say Keoukuck. Keoukuck.) As I walked up the stairs to the temple, a lady in front of me turned around to look at the view, so I turned around and looked, too. The temple is on a hill overlooking the valley, with the Mississippi River at the bottom. Can I just say wow? Breath taking, literally. In front of the temple is a statue of Joseph and his brother Hyrum on horseback, taking one last look at Nauvoo as they leave. I had the opportunity of changing out of my street clothes in a temple worker's change room, right under the round windows with the red and blue glass stars. The temple has been reconstructed to have the "old" feel of the original temple, while still having every modern convenience. It truly is, as is every temple, awe inspiring. Brent found where great, great, grandpa Farnsworth lived, as well as some great stories on file in Nauvoo (he found a story he'd never heard involving Indians) and we drove to the actual lots in Nauvoo. We could have spent two weeks in Nauvoo, not just the three days. We're making plans to go again when Michael and Matthew are a little older.