Paige...

One of my loyal blog readers read last week's post and texted me...Who is Paige?  and I realized, I dropped her into the last post without proper introduction.  Paige is my oldest niece, the oldest daughter of Derek's oldest sister Alayne.  She grew up in Everett.  My introduction to Derek's family actually happened at Paige's baptism.  So I have known her for a long time.  She went off to BYU-I in January.  During the semester, she started thinking about serving a mission (again--she had thought about it before).  As she was thinking about going on a mission, I spent a lot of time on the phone helping her weigh her options.  One thing I suggested was that if she came home to work before her mission, she could live with us.
So, she got her mission call in April and came home to our house instead of Everett with her parents.  This way she could work in Seattle (Everett to Seattle is a terrible commute, but our house to Seattle isn't so bad) to make more money for her mission.
Can I just say I LOVE having her here?  She is an excellent babysitter, but I just love having a friend around!  We do crazy things like the squat challenge and making cake batter ice cream at night after the kids go to bed.  We go on frozen yogurt runs.  It is making me feel young again!
I adore her, and it is going to be hard to see her go.  Chicago Spanish speakers don't know how lucky they are to get our Paige!

Derek and Paige both love Parks and Recreation...so Paige got him this special shirt for his birthday.