Twin1 on a mission (a family post) Part 1

Last week, I drove to the MTC and dropped off my first-born son. Here's how the day went:

I awoke around 6:30am. I hadn't slept very deeply, anyway, and there was much we still had to do before his drop-off time of 1:20pm. He, however, slept on. I read my scriptures, and hopped in the shower.
While he continued to sleep, I wrote him a letter (to read later, after he was settled in at the MTC) and put away my bedding (we'd slept in the living room - me on the window seat, him on the camp cot), and brought out his luggage and all the stuff we still needed to pack.

I wish he'd get up, so I could put away the camp cot and use the living room floor to cut out his pajamas, which, yes, he would be taking with him. (He'd specifically requested that I make pajamas - wouldn't have store-bought. But then we'd spent the weekend in Manti, camping, so that he and I, and my parents, could attend a session at the Manti temple - his idea. I didn't tell him how that meant I'd have to rearrange my schedule, how that might mean there were items he'd have to wait for, things I'd have to mail him while he was at the MTC. I didn't want him to miss out on such a good experience just because my energy was so limited, and I'd not planned on not having that last weekend to do stuff.)


Having an after-breakfast cone in Salina, Memorial Day.
Twin1 is on the right.

He finally gets up around 9:30, and hops in the shower. This is when we discover he's left his little bottle of lemon juice and conditioner (his preferred "shampoo") at the campground. I hunt up the travel bottle I intended to put conditioner in for him, and he uses that to concoct his mixture, while I go off to find yet another travel bottle.
He doesn't take short showers, so he's been in a while when mom calls, wondering if he's ready for her to come cut his hair. We'd waited to do this final haircut (it had been a couple months since we'd cut it for the photo to send in with his papers - see photo above for how long it was), but then at the last minute, his usual gal couldn't do it, so mom was stepping in. She feels like we've already left it a bit late in the day. I agree, and tell her she can head over, I'll get him out of the shower.

I pack up the camp cot, clear the floor, and get his pajamas cut out. Top and bottom, both, though I only plan to sew up the bottoms before we go. I know I don't have time to finish the top. Just as I finish cutting out, mom shows up, and they go out back to cut his hair. Since she's family, I can leave him with her (he isn't supposed to be alone once he's set apart - missionary rules), and head for the sewing room. About 45 min later, they're done, and I just need to put the elastic in the waist. He hops back in the shower to rinse off the little hairs that always seem to get down your neck from a haircut, and then he gets dressed in his pinstripe suit.

Meanwhile, I continue packing, marking anything I hadn't yet marked with his name/initials as I pack it. I'm packing his pants, straight out of the bag from the store, when I notice that one pair is significantly shorter than the rest. We'd had them in our possession for about a week, but I hadn't looked them over since picking them up after alterations. I have him try them on, to be sure it's not that the others are too long. Sadly, no. This one pair is way too short, and will have to go back, be replaced. No time to do it now - I'll have to take it back later, and mail them to him when they're done. I keep back a pair that's the right length as well, for them to measure by.

By now it's about 11:30, and we're still packing. Not to mention, he needed his garments from the day before washed so he could take them, and mom has rushed off to pick up four more tops for him. The ones he wants were on backorder, and still hadn't arrived, but he had to have something.
My friend calls and asks if there is anything she can do, any errands she could run for us? It takes me a second, but I realize that we aren't going to have time for lunch if we have to get it ourselves, and I ask her to pick up DP Cheesestakes for us (I'd promised we would grab lunch there). What a lifesaver that was!
I toss a few things in the wash, and when mom gets back, I add the tops so they can prewash. Then lunch arrives, and we all sit for a few minutes, talking, eating, trying to figure out how we'll manage to have everything ready in time. Why on earth he couldn't have packed as we went along, I'll never know. Personally, I like to pack at least a week before a big trip - that way, I have plenty of time to get anything I'm missing, or figure out what I don't really need. When you pack the day of, things tend to be messy.

I'm not entirely sure what else I did after eating lunch, besides moving the laundry to the dryer, and then changing it to high heat in hopes it will actually be dry in time. I know there was more packing, (the stuff from the dryer was ever-so-slightly damp still, but I marked it, and then told him to be sure and at least open that suitcase so they wouldn't get musty, just as soon as he has the chance) and putting the top down on the car so it would be easier to get the luggage in and out. Then I changed my clothes, and we started out the door.

(to be continued)