This happened today, thanks to Pokemon Go

A reunion three years in the making

I am getting the sense that TMFKATB is keenly aware that his time in the mission field is drawing to a close. His letters are arriving a little bit later each week and they have a familiar ring to them. I think he's trying to maximize his time with those he is serving and serving with as opposed to waxing poetic in emails home. Today's letter was nice, almost formulaic, but reassuring that all was well.

The stunningly patient and mighty fine SML and I were talking about his letter when are respective phones began noising off that each of us was getting a text. Quicker to open her text, SML let out a half-giggle / half whoop and said I needed to open my texts. Now.

There it was - TMFKATB with his buddy from here in the 'Stan, Cooper. They've not seen in each in three years. Cooper began his mission service in Rio de Janeiro a year before TMFKATB left, so their service has kept them apart. Until today. Cooper's family is behind the Zion Curtain, visiting their family in Mormon Mecca. TMFKATB and his companion were driving down a road in West Jordan when he saw, unbelievably, his buddy in a K-Mart (turns out there are still K-Marts that are open - who knew?!) parking lot playing, wait for it, Pokemon Go. They pulled over and a joyous reunion ensued! The best part is that Cooper was with his mom who immediately began texting us pictures and a blow-by-blow of the sudden reunion. To hear from someone who knows TMFKATB, who saw him when he was home sick from Mexico, and to have her say, "He looks so good!" was an absolute blessing for us. We loved getting the play-by-play. We loved seeing TMKATB see Cooper's dad. It really was terrific! Did it make us jealous? No, it made us so excited to know that we'll be seeing him in 23 days (but who's counting?!). We've been flying high all afternoon and into the evening as a result. Massive thanks to our sweet friends for making this happen today!

The world is so much smaller than we think. I'm grateful for this crazy technology that we have that allowed us to see and hear our boy today. We're grateful for friends that were able to give our boy more than a few hugs today.

I'm even grateful for Pokemon Go. Had Cooper not been playing it in that parking lot today, I'm not sure this reunion would have happened. Never in a thousand years did I think I'd be grateful for Pokemon Go. I suspect that this will be a one time thing.

Hear him for yourself!

His last transfer

Salad(!) and the Bingham Copper Mine

Due to yesterday's Independence Day celebration, I wasn't able to post the update from TMFKATB. So here it is, a day late.

This week's missive was brief, scant on detail but chock full o'exuberance. As is the norm, we get his family letter first and then as his day wears on, he sends additional updates. His family letter, entitled 'The Last Transfer,' was a reflection of the joy he has found in his two years of service. It all seemed to come together in the last couple of days for him and he was nothing short of elated.

He reflected on the fact that news would be coming about transfers and that this would be his last one. It was clear that he didn't want to be transferred but he put a positive spin on it. A few hours later, in his unbroken streak of everything somehow turning to gold for him, he sent this news:

"Great news! I'm staying here! I honestly can't ask for a better way to end! I am so happy!"

How do you argue with that? I am so happy for him and how he'll be able to wrap up his service. He's got six weeks left and he's as happy as he's ever been. So to celebrate, he and his companions went to the Bingham Copper Mine. If you've ever flown into the Zion Curtain's welcome mat, Salt Lake City International Airport, and you've approached from the south, you've seen this mine. It's a lovely eyesore open-pit copper mine which you can't miss. Strangely, that's where his happy took him yesterday. Good for him.

Maybe I should try that the next time I'm the receiver of great news. Go find a mine or a quarry and soak it all in. Whatever works, right?

So many things about this picture...but you gotta love the
skies that the Mountain West manages to produce.
And what about the motorcycle photobomber?

The crazy cat lady among other things

Much like Lisa, TMFKATB and his companion went
running from the crazy cat lady too

Due to a slew of meetings earlier this week, Preparation Day, or this week's day off, for TMFKATB did not fall until today. I will tell you right now that it was worth the wait. This week's letter was one of the best we've gotten from him in his nearly two years of service in Mexico and behind the Zion Curtain.

For one, and this made my English major's heart, dare I say it, swell, it was full of detail around what he was feeling during the week. As I read his letter, I felt the emotion he must have felt as he wrote it. I felt especially close to my son today and that was a tremendous feeling. Secondly, he talked a great deal about the love he has for the things he has been taught. His gratitude and love for his Savior was abundantly evident. Those are beautiful things to read.

At the same time, he's still The Boy. I laughed out loud as he briefly recounted their run-in meeting with the crazy cat lady in, wait for it, the trailer park (didn't see that coming, did you?).  He wrote:

We have met some interesting people. We met some psycho lady who

ran us off her porch. She had no teeth and a thousand cats.

I think she tried to cast a spell on us.

'Been there, done that,' I thought as I read this. The run-in with the crazy cat lady is a rite of passage for any Mormon missionary, I think. It doesn't matter where you serve, you're going to run into the local version of the crazy cat lady. My first run-in, because there were many (because Florida), happened in my first area in Hialeah, Dade County's capitol of all that is not right. We didn't run into her knocking doors. She literally ran into us. As my companion and I rode our bikes toward our apartment, we passed a series of two-story apartment buildings with six or eight units that dot much of the landscape of Hialeah. In the mid-80's, they were Ground Zero for the Marielitos. So working those buildings was like playing a supremely twisted version of "Let's Make A Deal." You really did not want to know what was behind Door #3. Trust me. As we passed one of those fun houses, she burst out of nowhere, bolting at us screaming and flailing in a way that in any other neighborhood would have brought multiple calls to 9-1-1. Not Hialeah. Convinced her ravings were curses (because Santeria), we did all we could to veer around her. The old men sitting in front of the building, chain smoking their cigars, just kept yelling, "Ay la loca!" and laughing. They weren't paying her much attention. We'd continue to run into her. She liked to surprise us, often bursting out of nowhere like she did the first time. She once hollered at us from her balcony but even in my limited knowledge of Spanish at that point, I knew she wasn't inviting us over for dinner. Suffice to say, we never worked her building.

It's probably been thirty one years since I last saw her. TMFAKTB's letter and the memory it triggered make it seem like yesterday. Given what I saw during my last two trips to Hialeah, one just last month, methinks she may still be there, bursting out of nowhere and surprising / scaring pretty much anybody. Good for her.

SaveSave

A crazy week

The latest in mission casual wear?

Over the course of the eighteen plus months, rare has been the Monday that I've not been able to carve up my schedule so that I could dedicate time to the letter from TMFKATB. There have only been a couple of occasions where I've not been able get his letters or give him a decent response. This past Monday was crazy for me. Ironically, he entitled this week's letter 'A crazy week.' I got his email about 15 minutes before my craziness was hitting 11 as I was about to go on stage with Doug Parker, CEO and Chairman of American Airlines, to chat him up in front of 700 or so industry colleagues. Suffice to say, I wasn't able to interact much with TMFKATB this past Monday.

So that's the excuse for posting this week's update a little late. As for the update, he did have some craziness. He and his companion had been told as of last Monday they'd be training a new missionary. Within a matter of days, the threesome became a foursome and by the end of week, the two new missionaries were on their own, opening a new area. Things change quickly when visas come through for missionaries and that was exactly the case with the fourth missionary (a Mexican national serving in his home country until his US visa cleared, allowing him to head behind the Zion Curtain to serve the balance of his mission assignment). Suffice to say, it made for a bit of craziness for them all, but they seemed to get through it with flying colors. That's always good.

This week's pearl of wisdom came from TMFKATB in the form of this endorsement:

Draper is so sick!

For those of you who either do not live behind the Zion Curtain or are not familiar with the cities and towns that make the Zion Curtain what it is, Draper is a town south of Salt Lake City. Its greatest claim to fame, and it's dubious, is that it houses the charm-free Utah State Prison and was the site of the execution of Gary Gilmore. It is also the place where the first IKEA in the whole of Utah was built. A prison and an IKEA, going all 'Ebony and Ivory' is rich, given that they are both meant to hold people against their will.

Short and sweet

Fresh fruit on a stick
Throwback to his Mexico days

No one is ever going to accuse TMFKATB of being long-winded or overly descriptive in his weekly missives home. I've lamented that fact plenty before, so the brevity of this week's letter should not have come as a big surprise to anyone, especially me (one can hope though, right?).

Here's the recap:
Things are going well.
They are busy.
They ran into some, and I quote, 'shady people.' Let's remember that he's entrenched behind the Zion Curtain so the 'shady' scale is highly interpretive.
Knee-deep in his study of the New Testament and he's digging it.

There you have it. A week in the life of TMFKATB. Plus a picture of him going to town on what appears to be a mango. I just hope it's not a tumor-esque chunk of fried dough that some BYU student is now selling from a sketchy food truck. Even if it is said fried dough, I can hardly reprimand him for it, given my fondness for food trucks/carts, the sketchier the better, around the world. Best to leave that alone.

Ch-ch-changes

Riding dirty in the 801, or maybe the 385

While the title of today's post would suggest this is a long overdue homage to the late musical genius David Bowie, alas, it is not. It references the title of this week's letter from TMFKATB. In this week's all too brief letter, he updated us on changes in his world.

The biggest change came in the form of transfers, a ritual that occurs about every six weeks. It's a time when missionaries may be assigned to new areas, companionships changed, or there can be no changes at all. For TMFKATB, he lost a companion, was given a senior leadership role, and got a new companion. He seemed a bit surprised by it all. I get the impression he did not anticipate that he would be impacted by transfers this time. Well, buddy, as the late Mr Bowie said, 'Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.'

We had to toss a bit of a change grenade his way as we had to tell him about the 'decline' notice we got on his first choice of schools. He took it totally in stride, saying, 'I've got too much on my plate right now to be distracted by this.' He's resilient and it makes me proud.

I need to channel how he's taking the news. He's handling it a lot better than me, can I just tell you? I don't think I will ever understand the voodoo that is the college acceptance scheme. Grrr.....

Crazy ideas about us

Post-game recovery

If you've ever been inside an LDS meetinghouse / chapel and tried to use the free Wifi, you'll know that descriptors like "lightning fast" or "strong reliable signal" do not apply.  Ever. No matter what building you are in. Whoever sourced the service left that out of the RFP (allegedly). So it should come as no surprise when I tell you that we are now in week three of bizarre issues with the server through which TMFKATB sends his weekly emails. For instance, the stunningly patient and mighty fine SML got his weekly letter right before 2PM our time when he sent it. I, who was included in that same group, got it three hours later. I got a couple of pictures in an email and she, also included in the same group, has yet to get them. I know it's not us because I forwarded that picture email to her while using the most craptastic WiFi on the planet (gracias, Amtrak) and she got it instantly. But I digress...

Server foolishness notwithstanding, TMFKATB served up another good, reassuring letter this Monday. He's busy, so he's a little more tired than he'd like to be. He's ready for winter to end, saying "I am so ready for short sleeves!" (Thanks, Sipowicz - let's just say I'm not a fan of short sleeves and ties.) He also mentioned for the first time something that happens to almost every Mormon missionary in the course of a mission and that was coming up against anti-Mormons. Given that he's serving in the belly of the beast as it were, or Mormon Mecca, it's not unsurprising that there is some virulent opposition to the Church. While he spent no time on the details, he said this, "People...have some crazy ideas about us." He seemed pretty non-plussed by it all, taking it in stride and content to stay focused on the happiness he is found during the course of his missionary service. That seemed a pretty reasonable response to me.

Crazy ideas about the way people believe abound. Just ask a Muslim. What a world it would be if we truly let people practice their faith without prejudice. What a world it would be if we didn't have preconceived (and wrong) notions about a faith different from our own. I don't claim to be a perfect member of my faith. I can assure you I am not. I really do hope that as I've shared the mission experiences of TMFKATB that we've been able to dispel some of the 'crazy' that's out there about our faith.

A Milestone (of sorts)

His new shoes. Apparently the Salt Lake
branch of 'Gangsters R'Us' was having
a close-out sale.

Shoes are a big deal when you're a missionary. You're on your feet a stupid number of hours each day. Your shoes need to be comfortable. They need to be able to withstand whatever climate you find yourself in. It would be nice too if they'd last more than a couple of months. If you can keep a pair of shoes more than a year, you are some kind of superhero in missiondom. TMFKATB had a couple of pair of shoes that did yeoman's duty while he was in Mexico and faced the jungle rot like champs. Now that he's behind the Zion Curtain, he has upped his shoe game apparently. I'm guessing this based on the shoes he bought today, representing a two-tone milestone of sorts. He's worn out another pair of shoes (now that's a milestone) but channeled a 1940's Zoot Suit wearer when he bought his new ones. He included a picture of them in today's letter.

His letter was a good one, albeit brief. He's learned very quickly that being a part of mission leadership takes busy to 11. He's in meetings, leading trainings, and managing the mundane, like bike deliveries to various sundry missionaries. He's learning, even in his first week, that his actions speak far louder than his words and he's trying to lead by being a doer. He's also thrilled to be working with a diverse group of Latinos. It makes life better for him. He just seemed really, really happy. I'll take that any day of the week.

Fun for us to see a picture of him in
action - facilitating a training session

Not every week is perfect

Missionary thuggery

Having served a two-year mission myself, I know that there are days and weeks of service that are far from perfect. There are frustrations and disappointments. The trick is how those days are handled and what you learn from them. If learned well, those are lessons that will serve you well the rest of your life. TMFKATB is going learning those lessons right now.

His letter this week reflected the challenges a twenty year old has when things aren't turning out exactly as you'd hoped. One of the things he's loved about his service is the chance to teach and in the last couple of weeks, those teaching chances have been few and far between. In the regimented (and rightfully so) world of a Mormon missionary, your options for working through those frustrations are limited, so you have to get creative in how you deal with them. So TMFKATB wrote that he we focusing on changing his mindset, with this quote in mind:

"We must learn to become creators of circumstances and not creatures of them." 

Not bad guidance. Not bad at all.

As I read and reread his letter, as a father and as one who has been in his shoes (albeit 30 years ago now), I tried to read between the lines to make sure I wasn't missing anything or if there was some magic bullet I could share with him. I realized he's learning these lessons for himself and when he can challenge himself to focus on being his own agent of change, I could breathe a little easier.

It didn't hurt that he also shared how a recent meal of higado (liver) drilled right through him faster than the #8 Combo Meal at Taco Hell Bell. You know that all is right in the world. That's my boy.

Getting clinical

From inside the Linda Blair Memorial Ward

So TMFKATB has never been one to understate a situation but he may have done so with the first line of this week's letter. He had titled his email 'weird week' which was a bit of a hint. "So this week was rather strange" was the first sentence. He then began to explain why it was strange and weird. Thanks to a resurgent bout of chikungunya, he spiked a nasty fever and was racked with pain. He wound up at a 'clinic' for two days, being pumped full of, well, who knows what. It apparently worked because he went on to detail how he was feeling better and looking forward to a full week of work and as he put it, 'miracles' this week.

So, suffice to say, this week's letter was a little unsettling for us. As you can see from the picture he sent, some one really needs to talk to the folks that painted the interior of the clinic. Apparently they took their inspiration from Linda Blair's pea soup cavalcade of vomit from "The Exorcist." There's nothing soothing about those walls. I'm still trying to figure out what the big tank is next to his bed. Helium? Oxygen? Salsa? I don't even know and maybe it's best to not know. I'm just grateful that whatever the doctors did, it seemed to do the trick. He's better.

I will never lament medical care in the US again. Ever. Last year when my gall bladder decided that it no longer wanted to reside within me in the angriest ways possible, I spent two days at a teaching hospital. Some of our friends acted as if I'd gone to JoJo's Casa Of Chicken, Oil Changes and General Surgery when they learned that's where I'd opted to have my surgery. It may not have been the fanciest of hospitals but I had outstanding care from the 600 residents that paraded through my room every 42 seconds. I look at that picture my boy sent and I'm just grateful for the doctors and nurses who did their best caring for him with what the limited resources that they had. To say that we have it so well medically in this country is a massive understatement, in spite of what Fox News says.

The good news is that he was positive throughout his letter and his sense of humor is fervently in place. That made us feel a lot better. He assured us that he's feeling a whole lot better. He had to be if he was able to wax poetic about this meal:

tacos bistec y guacamole

He's gained a wicked appreciation for the hand-made foods of southern Mexico. Seems to me that a meal like that could cure of you pretty much anything. Seriously, is there nothing a taco can't solve?

"I have no fear"

One of the 'ranchitos' in his area

Another Monday. Still our favorite day.

Another ridiculous Monday snow storm. 3rd week in a row. Still not one of our favorite things.

Another letter from TMFKATB. It was one that showed some significant growth in him. It also showed his sense of humor remains intact.

First the bit of humor. He had to take a seven hour bus ride to Tuxtla Gutierrez to participate in leadership training. Apparently the climate change was a little hard for him to take. Here's what he said: "We arrived in Tuxtla and I thought I was gonna die. It was so dang cold. Probably only 65 degrees but with wind. It was freezing." Bear in mind, this is a kid who claims Chicago as his hometown and spent the last two years living in not balmy Connecticutistan. He knows from cold. As we read his humorous little lamentation, we were looking at 20 degrees and hour eight of non-stop snow. We win, but it's not a game I want to win.

Then for the growth. He talked about how they just jump on cumbis, or mini-buses, and just go where they feel like they should go. Very often they aren't sure where they'll wind up. For those of you who know TMFKATB, you know this is huge, and I mean, HUGE, for him. He said, "I'm sure you all remember how scared I used to be of going to new places and being alone. God has blessed me and I have no fear. It's awesome." He's not kidding about that fear. When he was young, that fear, at times, could be nearly paralyzing for him. The reasons why are probably worth a post some day but are more a reflection of my leaving the TV on when we lived in SoCal during a rash of child kidnappings / killings when he was really young. #awesomeparenting

Taking in his words were a source of tremendous comfort to me. I've had very few concerns about him as he embarked on his missionary service but how he would handle this challenge has not been far from my thoughts and prayers. It's been one of the things I've been most concerned about. It was also something I really didn't know how to ready him for, outside of platitudes and fatherly guidance. I knew he'd have to learn it on his own. He's learning that lesson and I'm more than a little relieved.

It's just one of many that he'll learn during these two years. They are lessons that will serve him well for the rest of his life. This is why I like, no, love these Mondays.

It's National Pizza Day today. Not that these three knew that.

It's a little warmer

Sadly, I've stayed in worse places

Last week's letter and spot communication from TMFKATB reflected a young man who'd been served a heaping help of change with a side order of surprise and how he was trying to deal with it. The Boy, or TMFKATB, does not like the unknown. Surprises are not his friend. He's cool so long as he has an idea of what's going on. So we knew last week's changes had the potential to rattle him. We were more than a little anxious to get today's missive.

Today's letter was a literal ray of sunshine in an otherwise dreary day. By dreary, I mean non-stop snow for 12 hours which meant 12 inches of snow and a couple of nightmare shovel bonanzas. His letter, although written in his rat-a-tat stream of consciousness and ever worsening English, showed that he's stepping up to the challenges that his new assignments and new area are giving him. He's also recognizing the rewards of working hard. He's learning about working hard to earn the respect of others that don't automatically grant that respect. I have to hand it to him though because his sense of humor continues to shine through.

He was kind enough to send us a picture of his bathroom. It's safe to say we breathed a collective sigh of relief when we saw that toilet paper was present and accounted for. Of his shower, he said, "The bathroom here has a little warmer water. It's still freezing but not ice cold haha." Nice perspective. He also let me know that he had powered down 13, yes 13, carne asada tacos at one sitting. One of my aortas constricted with joy and envy when I read that.

With some of the missionaries and members in his area

He just looks happy. And tan. He's getting a little George Hamilton-esque! Ironically, The Boy and I ran into Mr. Hamilton when we were in Miami last year. Suffice to say, all that tanning did George zero favors, but I digress. That smile and that tan on our boy made our day. He's happy, he's outside working. He's loving the people he is serving. Couldn't ask for much more.

Now that was a surprise

New companion, new house, new city. Wait...what?

With Winter Storm Juno and its evil love child, the Blizzard, which is so unfortunate to be known as because who doesn't love a Blizzard from the Diary Queen, bearing down on us, it might have been easy to forget that it's Monday and the day we hear from TMFKATB.

I say might have been because just after noon, I was finally able to come up for air from a super fun Monday of work, when his first email arrived. Like last week, he surprised us again. It's safe to say he was surprised himself. Not only did he get a new companion, a young man from Guatemala, and is acting as his trainer, he found out that he and his new missionary were being assigned to a new city. Right. Then.

So his missionary life pretty much changed overnight. He's a trainer, a brand-new district leader, and now trying to figure his away around a town he's never been in in his life and he knows not a soul. But, as he pointed out, he found a good hamburger place (he is his father's son). His letter reflected a little sense of being overwhelmed but his attitude overall was positive. He has a remarkable ability to find the good in pretty much any situation. That will serve him well the rest of his life.

We're glad to know where he is. It's funny that we spent a week thinking he was still in his old area and that all was well. The fact of the matter is that all was well, just in a new city. We're glad to know his companion is a native Spanish speaker. I'm glad he found a good burger joint. He's going to have to take me back there one day. I can't wait.

One thing I can wait for is this #Snowmageddon2015 foolishness. When you are hashtagging a storm, something has jumped the shark. Anyway, I've got to go figure out how to fire up my generator in case, as the weather hysterics are predicting, we lose power. This is one time when I need the internets to prove it is not "an infinite well of nothing" (all credit to the brilliant Mike Birbiglia) for that, so YouTube fail me not! Let's go find an instructional video!

When the trainee becomes the trainer

My favorite picture that he's sent us so far

We've tried to plan our Mondays around the 'ding' of the bell announcing there's something in the email inbox. That something, of course, is an email from TMFKATB. Today, he surprised us by being on 30 minutes earlier than usual.

Once we read the first couple of lines of his letter, we knew why he was early. He had news. His trainer is being reassigned to Tuxtla Gutierrez (TG) and TMFKATB was heading to TG as well to pick up his new companion - a brand-new missionary. After just about three months in country, TMFKATB will be training. He is also being given a leadership assignment and so his letter was full of appeals for prayer on his behalf. He has no idea if the new missionary he'll be training is an American or from Mexico or any where else in the world. He'll know more tonight. He's glad he's staying in his little town for now.

Although feeling a tad overwhelmed today, he's happy. The picture at the top of this post nails it for me. He has embraced the people he's serving and they are his family. I just look at that picture, that smile, and I am at ease.

Now, because he is my son and the manzana does not fall far from el arbol, he shared a couple highlights of his culinary adventures as well:

Green Enchiladas

Of these green enchiladas, which look freaking amazing, he said, "We ate these amazing green enchiladas. It was incredible. Super spicy and so dang good. I can't eat anything now without a tortilla!"

Apparently, he likes these gems

Of the cookies, he said, "Also these are the best cookies in the world. BUY THEM. DAD YOU WILL DIE. THEY ARE SO DANG GOOD."

The screaming ALL CAPS were his so apparently he means business. So it's a good thing I have the day off today. I'm on a hunt. So far, Amazon doesn't have them. Looks like I may need to hit a mercadito when I'm in the city later this week. I mean what kind of father would I be if I DIDN'T find these taste treats?

Apparently, he was tired

Apparently, he was too tired to get up...or put on pants

This week's letter from TMFKATB was one missionary parents love to get. He spoke time and again about how happy he is. He's had a couple of moments of self-discovery too that are making it easier for him to focus on the people he's working with. Not even an earthquake that tossed him around his room this morning was going to dampen his spirit. Knowing that he is happy is a source of comfort, no a blessing, that is immeasurable to us.

I'll post a link to the letter later. It's been a day. Two hours hostage on the M train (don't ask) during evening rush can and does sap your energy. So when I've been renewed, yes, renewed, I'll add a link. But I will sleep peacefully knowing he's happy, serving, learning and growing a few thousand miles away.

Settled

At the Izapa Ruins

In what is now our ritual for the next two years, we eagerly awaited the "ping" alerting us to an e-mail in our respective inboxes today. That ping came in a little early - 30 minutes or so earlier than normal - today and it brought the letter from TMFKATB. How would I summarize said letter? In one word - settled. The stunningly patient and mighty fine SML and I both felt good about that assessment.

Our missionary son seems settled and I don't mean that in a lethargic way. He seems like he's got his routine down now. He is enjoying the opportunity to learn and talked a bit about how that's changing him. He loves the people he lives amongst. He assured us his health is good, meaning he's keeping everything down, literally. I'm sure this is good news for the missionary he lives with but I suspect the Latin American operations of the one-ply toilet paper concern he's been using will see a downturn in sales. Sorry, not sorry.

He shared a couple of pictures, like the one above, of his P-Day trip to Izapa. Pictures were all he shared of that excursion. Apparently he's a real believer that pictures can tell a thousand stories. Izapa is a significant pre-Colombian archaeological site and includes the "Tree of Life." Looked pretty cool. I guess we'll have to wait a couple of years to get the story.

These Monday exchanges mean the world to us. We look forward to them and they really do set the tone for our week. I'm glad he started the new year feeling settled. It helps me to do the same.