Best. Week. Ever.

This week started off well enough. Derek got home. Trevor and I picked him up from the airport Sunday night at midnight. I love that little bunsucker. It's been far too long. Then I went to my last day of work with Chris. I came away with some quality letters of recommendation, a decent paycheck, some Christmas nuts
for the fam, and knowledge and experience and friends and all that. I celebrated by going to the local pizza place, Valentino's with Shiboi Derek himself, where Kevin and the Carolers were performing a delightful concert. Kevin even paid for our pizza. And their teacher, who has taught at least three chorus classes with Derek and NONE with me, recognized me and not really him. Awkward. But I think he is an avid basketball fan, because he also knows Hannah, who took no classes with him.

Why you stuck up, half-witted,
scruffy-looking nerf herder!
Who's scruffy-looking?

Tuesday I got to go to T Sizzle's basketball game. The man is a freaking demon. He is so good at everything. I love watching the kid play. And playing with him. Not, however, against him. We're the same height, but I got nothin' on his bootycakes. After the game, I dropped him off with some friends and I went to hang out with friends. Weird that I still have those, right? We had a nice evening of gift giving, merrymaking, and revelry. It's so strange to be back. I feel like I'm in high school again with these people. The following day began our Star Wars marathon that is NOT 24 hours straight of movie-watching (last time, we did that with Harry Potter and I almost died). The rest of our Christmas Eve was spent opening a single present, as per tradition, and reading the Christmas story. And, of course, setting up traps for the kiddies. Kevin and I strung up the dining room while Derek and Trevor trip-wired the hallway so a bag of basketballs would drop on top of them. Unfortunately, Xander and the little girlies do not have the adventurous spirits that we once had as youth. The traps, designed to work in the wee hours of the morning, were not nearly so effective at 8am, when the sun is basically at its peak this time of the year. What kind of kids are these? The best part of Christmas was our family basketball game, which had me laughing so hard, I nearly peed my pants. I love these guys. The level of ridiculosity at which we interact is just too much. And basketball is just always fun.

Early Friday morning, we drove to Rhode Island to go rock climbing. Which just reminded me how long its been since I've climbed and how weak my upper body is. But hey! I am progressing rapidly towards doing a pull-up. Sometime in the next six months,  I reckon. It was super fun, challenging, and adrenaline boosting. I spent most of my time on the half-sized wall, honing my (lack of) skills. I like climbing better than bouldering anyway. But I had conquered all but one of the walls when we were contemplating leaving the gym and so, obviously, I had to get that one. (It was being hoarded nearly the whole time we were there, by a group of pretty decent climbers). Anyways, so the first time that I get up almost nearly to the top, I tried to jump off of the little foothold and it broke into pieces. I thought I just slipped until I got back to the ground. I did get to keep a piece as a souvenir. And I did conquer that wall, despite how bad I was shaking (from overexerted muscles,

not fear). Of course, energy was built back up rapidly enough for a good session of fight club. Trevor and I were really sweaty by the end and our calves burned from being slapped repeatedly. What great fun. And then, of course, we had a night frisbee session with the old crew that ended in a Taco Bell run and me staying up super late because Kevin and Derek and Trevor would not get out of my bed.
Saturday I was exhausted even more than usual as I went to the temple. But I got through it, oftentimes running around like the hooligan that I am, alongside Grampy. We're buds :) Not even the temple can control our shenanigans. I got to see Alejandro at a session, eat lunch with Grampy and his friend, hang out with the Providence Stake missionaries and recent converts at the baptistry, and meet my family for a session and a steak dinner. Derek read me the Wayside School books all the way home.
Sunday was wonderful too. We got to hear a sweet talk by Cody Hanson about seminary that he wrote during Sacrament meeting. I taught the Gospel Principles class on Jesus Christ in the preexistence. And I got to help out in Primary. I get those kids into more trouble than they can get into themselves. Oh yeah, and Donny Osmond came to church. I got an introduction, a picture, and a hug. Holla.

Gloria In Excelsis Deo

As per usual, all highlights hemdomadaire occurred at the end of the week. The beginning is usually pretty tame. I went to work literally all day on Monday. I did have a dinner break. As part of my work, Chris thought it would be a good experience to go to a BNI meeting. So at 7am I went to this networking meeting. It was basically a bunch of professionals doing 30s commercials- what kind of referrals they would like, what services they offer. Then two businesses get a ten minute slot each week to go more in-depth. It's all very dry. I liked the personal trainer, though.

Kristen, Mikey, and RJ

I got my tooth tumor fixed this week. And I got a free bracelet because Dr Kitley is actually the kids' dentist and I'm supposed to go to the adult side now. What can I say? I'm a rebel. I also got a life time supply of glasses and contacts. And I got all my old glasses fixed. And the guy who helped me out with it all is Haitian, so we talked in French for a while. Then I was bored, so I volunteered to do mom's shopping while she was finishing up her eye appointment. She gave me the list and I was out running. I got everything she ever wanted. And more. I was privileged to see basketball games from Xander, Trevor, and Hannah this week. What a beautiful sport that is. Friday, I babysat for Kristen Fry, who is a tad eccentric, but a better person than I could ever hope to be. What an example of hope and diligence in the midst of trials.

Grampy and Mimi. And Derek-
who gets back this week!

Saturday I went to the temple, yet again. I had a few good laughs that day. Overstressed co-workers. Weird, rented temple clothing. It was all good fun and oh so glorious. I loved it. I headed over to Grampy's on the way back for some cookies, but more importantly grape juice. Love that stuff. We all went down to Kevin's Christmas chorus concert, which was splendid as well. Final Cut was hilarious with an Africa/12 Days of Christmas mix, similar to this one. And the Carolers were lovely as well. Almost as lovely as that sandwich I enjoyed while watching the concert, despite the "velvet seats" of the auditorium. The grande finale was of course, all the alumni singing the Hallelujah Chorus with Select and Chamber choirs. I sang the men's part. Partially because I was hanging out with some old chums, Zach Higgins, Sabo, and Steven Burger. Partially because I can't actually sing that high. Then Zach and I grabbed some late night GTH milkshakes and caught up on life. And contacted Maurice, the Brazilian barista who will soon receive his very own Portuguese BOM, gratuitement. (Good thing I only know how to bear my testimony in that language. Comes in handy.) And planned many an adventure for the upcoming week. It includes the classics: Star Wars, Hobbit, GTH, and frisbee. Who can argue? And today is Sunday. I spent all of Sacrament meeting avoiding sitting or leaning on a staple Kevin found and kept placing strategically on the pew. We all need a little more adventure in life. Then I taught Gospel Principles, unplannedly. And Primary. Unplannedly. Roarke and I became friends. Zack and I did not.  And some Canadians came to my Gospel Principles class, so we spoke French as well.

There he is.
Little Jonny himself.

Here's a new segment I like to call "Missionary Look-Alike". This week, we have two featured. The first shoutout goes to Soeur Schreiber. I saw the Asian version of you (how appropriate) at the temple (hence the lack of picture). But she has the same haircut, the same face structure, the same style, including some bright red heels I can easily picture on your feet. Voila, thought of you. Second shoutout goes to Elder DuPre, spotted at the chorus concert. I never knew your voice was so good. But there you have it. I love you all and miss you a reasonable amount. I hate that David Archuletta came without me, but I'll get over it. I wish you all an overabundance of joy and happiness, which will come to you as you follow the gospel of Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas.

Working Backwards

http://francelyonmission.blogspot.com
Check out the Mission Overview Video.

I miss missions. But people have been distracting me often enough that sometimes I forget and I almost feel like a real person. (I still talk to myself in French and type like I'm using a French keyboard, but it's gonna take me a while to kick those habits.) This weekend was the best. I just got back from a Christmas Concert performed by the Boston Mission. I almost cried when they played Angels We Have Heard On High. Almost. Even more amazing was the fact that most of those songs didn't rhyme at all, but they sounded so good that the lack of rhymes didn't even bother me! And my boss, Chris was there. And they had frosted animal cracker cups (although they tried to hide regular animal crackers inside. Don't worry- I carefully separated the impostors).
Boston Mission President Packard and his family hung out at our house all day (in between going on visits with my dad and the Groton missionaries). So we got to eat with them and I just talked to Sister Packard about my mission. For a long time. And also re-learned how to play the guitar at the same time. 'Twas awesome. At church, the third hour was a combined meeting where the Packards just answered a bunch of questions people had. I heard some complaints about the "Chaperone Rule," which quickly changed when a woman shared a story about how she used that as an excuse to share the gospel with a male friend of hers. Cheers to you, my friend.

Fight Club poster boys

Saturday night was the umpteenth installment of Fight Club. At this point, we've gotten to designating all future Saturdays to this activity, in addition to any random time throughout the week. T Sizzle and I cleared out a decent area in our Family Room so we've got some room to work. Trevor's moves consisted of calf-slapping. Every now and again he says, They call me Rocky or Yo, they don't call me Swipah fah nothin'. I would punch him and then tickle the underside of his chin as humiliation (just to show I could hit him there if I wanted). Fight Club is fun because we don't actually try to hurt each other. We get a decent number of bruises from it, but it's all whimsical. Sometimes Kevin wants to start up a session (always in inappropriate circumstances, i.e. at church) and actually tries to punch hard, which doesn't hurt too bad, but makes him really annoying to play with. Stupid boy.
Saturday morning my dad actually drove up to the temple with me! Meaning free garments, lunch, annnnndddd temple cookies. I worked all day en espanol, en plus. Our stake had 7 own-endowments in one session (temple record!) and they were ALL spanish speaking. Then I was invited to a Christmas party at the Thompsons' house. They live in back of the temple in the Presidents' house, so I used the secret spy walkway to get there. So I got free dinner too. AND I could sleep on the way home.
In other news, this week I had all my medical appointments. I got my Tb test and I think it looks positive, but they didn't look too closely and said I was fine. So if I die, blame it on tuberculosis. I finally had a dentist appointment and got my teeth cleaned and got my favorite children's dentist to help a brotha out.  Turns out my tooth has a reverse cavity, otherwise known as a tumor, otherwise known as a 'rough patch'. It's all very technical, but I have to go back to get it smoothed out. And I went to the chiropractor. That was disappointing because I figured it'd be like a couple back cracks and we're good to go. He wanted me to come back twice a week forever. Which, at $30 a visit, I didn't agree with. But he did give me some good advice.

Fishing for Kindness. Classic. 

I missed Institute this week because my sweet potato fries took too long to cook. But I did see a hobo with a fishing pole and a sign that said Fishing for Kindness, which I thought was hilarious. So I bought him a bunch of fishy food (Goldfish, Swedish fish, tuna, cape cod chips, etc). I hope he gets the joke. My boss' wife was out of town this week and I think he was lonely and/or trying to make up work, so he kept asking me to work crazy hours and do weird things. Like find some courthouse in the middle of New London, which has NO parking spots nearby, in the pouring rain. But he's still working on not swearing. And his Christmas gift to me was "an hour of his time". What did I do with it? I invited him to the missionary Christmas concert, of course! #missionarywork And I took a nap in my bed today (remember the concave fold-out couch?) and woke up with Xander, Isabelle, and Lavinia in here with me and a computer with Hannah on Skype on my lap. Happy Holidays to me.

Fight Club

Already broken a
thousand times. 

I did the Kenpo (like karate) Cardio Plus workout of P90X this week. Who knew punching the air could be so fun or leave your arms incapacitated for the next three days? Not I, said the Little Red Hen. It also stimulated a strong desire to be able to fight people. So I learned how to throw knives and punches on YouTube. Then T Sizzle started attacking me at every spare moment. We may or may not have an official fight club. It happens every where, all the time, and only ends when someone cries.  

Hey there, Lil Richie.
You're so big!

In other news, I work for this attorney, Chris, doing random stuff that he needs. He left me his house keys and asked me to clean his carpets while he was on vacation. Talk about trust. Then when he got back, he tried to help me with my future by hooking me up with internships and teaching me how to network (say their name, make a connection, and suck up to people). And he decided to quit swearing. I'd like to think I had a small role in this, seeing as I make sarcastic comments to him every time I hear things of which I don't approve. 

It looked like this, but then he
landed on his face. 

Saturday I woke up real early to get up to the Boston Temple again. I actually got to eat lunch with Grampy. Which was nice because that's about all I saw of him. People talk to me about Grampy all day and I guess they talk to him about me too, but we don't actually really see each other. I made it home just in time for the ward Christmas Party. There was good food. My mom did a 12 Days of Christmas skit and threw around uncooked chickens and eggs, making a mess on the floor.  Tim Kitley lip synched with an electric ukelele while wearing an alpaca fur hat. And I saw my favorite kid from nursery and spent the whole time throwing him up in the air until he tried to show me how you Hulk Smash the ground and biffed it and started bleeding everywhere. And Santa called my dad Lil Richie. And so that's what we've been calling him. 
Today was the best though. First of all it's fast Sunday. I like fasting. Second, I got to go to Gospel Principles, where we talked about exaltation. I like exaltation. Third, I got to teach the Retab to the Young Women. Unfortunately, that meant I missed out on teaching it to Jacob Money. I made the missionaries do it for me. I jumped in at the end of the lesson and it seemed to have gone reasonably. We have a return rdv for Thursday, when I'll actually be there. And I had potatoes for lunch. I like potatoes. And this:

Turkey Day

I know this is the highlight of your Mondays but I'm going to keep this relatively short due to the fact that it is being written at 2am. Honestly, this week was a bit more of the same. I woke up before the sun to go play basketball.  And by that I mean, stumble around with my dad making him run drills and rebounding until I get to play defense on him. Then the fun begins. Then I wake up.
I worked a fair amount. This part time gig is turning into more of a full time gig than I'd planned. But the more, the merrier when it comes to solid green in the hands of a soon-to-be starving college student. 
I'm sewing a new skirt with little monsters on it. I thought it was funny. I also had my little brother T Sizzle escort me through the library to tell me all the new series I need to read. I made a stack of the first books in each series. It's a hefty stack. 
Thursday my family drove up to Massachusetts to meet my extended family for dinner. We borrowed the keys to the church, in typical Hutchins style. We set up the feast of all feasts. Then we all ran around like maniacs, also true to form. I threw someone into the snow. Fended off repeated attacks. At some point, a cousin had a leg through the basketball hoop. It was utter madness. Imagine our family if they drank alcohol. Bad news bears. My oldest cousin Roger just got married and so his new wife was there. She's pretty cool. And she's the Roney's neighbor. All I heard about for the rest of the day was bets on which of the cousins is next for the chopping block. 
I bought a sweet leather jacket on black friday. Then i drove back to mass to go to Roger's reception. And by that I mean watch my sister's basketball game in the basement while eating delicious cupcakes. If you saw that picture from my basketball days last week, then you get a decent picture of the girl Hannah was up against. After having more than my fair share of cupcakes, I presented my wonderful cousin Adam with the French cheeses I have been reserving in my freezer. Roquefort, some chevres, and Tar Tar of course. The fact that I carried these reeking cheeses all the way from France and then kept them in my house just shows that I like him. Even with the beard. Then, as per usual, I invited myself to sleep over at his house. The father of Rogers BFF was there and not taking any of our hints that it was time to go. Which, at the very least, proved to be entertaining.
Early Saturday morning I drove to the Boston temple. I worked there all day. I hung out with Grampy. Also a funny old Italian man. And all the Haitians that were there. We spoke in French. They also spoke English but I didn't care. Sunday I dropped some of my siblings off at our ward before I went to the singles ward with my two littlest sisters. Only because I had to speak. We got there late,  but that's what happens when it's an hour away and I've sworn to drive J Money to church. My mom had meetings early in the morning so she couldn't. Anyways.  I gave a talk on repentance to the whopping 15 people there. And sang four times as loud as anyone else. Then they invited me to a linger longer, which I only stayed for bc my sister's were begging. And it included cereal. That meant I had to talk to people. Naturally,  I sat at the boys table. I was shocked that there people still sit segregated in normal life! I thought it was a missionary thing. Guess not. I broke up the monotony, as per usual.
I read a lot of books this week. I sleep on a couch bed in a room that people usually don't enter. It is now the hub of activity. And the middle of the couch bed is like the Rancor pit in Star Wars. Deep and unforgiving. And has hidden monsters. The kids find any excuse to be in here. My favorite is when we're all just sitting in here reading. Every now and again one of us will laugh and explain what happened and we all laugh. It's nice as far as limbos go.